Do you find yourself clueless when it comes to “Thanksgiving”? Well, maybe this can help you out. American traditions are surprisingly present in European culture due to the fact that America has been exporting holiday traditions by various means. For example, the majority of TV series covers at least one episode about festive holidays, such as Christmas (we do not need to elaborate on that topic) or Thanksgiving. Halloween, love it or hate it, has established after all. Are Europeans going to pick up that tradition, too? Well if you ask me, I’d say: “Not gonna happen”, but read more about the typically North American tradition…

Thanksgiving goes back to the 17th century

People in British Colonies in today’s New England area celebrated that holiday in the 17th century. What made them do that? Well, they wanted to - hence the name - thank God for this year’s harvest season. As you might have assumed it, it is a religious holiday indeed, at least its origin is.

In the US, the holiday is set to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving which initiates the shopping season for Christmas. Lots of companies entice their costumers with sales promotion, such as door busters (give away of really cheap or free items). The term Black Friday goes only back to the 1970s. The color black is alluding to the dark exhaust fumes because of heavy traffic at that time of the year. Now the meaning has changed and the term black now refers to the fact that retailers are first in black because of “heavy shopping”. (profit = black letters # loss = red letters)

The majority gets off for four days. That’s why most American calenders have a big fat red mark indicating a long weekend.

Canada on the contrary has the same tradition, but Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October.

The tradition nowadays basically serves the same purpose: Coming together and being thankful about all the good things the last year brought. Families try really hard to gather at home, which finally means that airplane tickets and bus tickets are wisely booked in advance. The highways are jammed, usually bumper to bumper. Students usually come home to take a break from college or university for four days (Thursday to Sunday).

Turkey Day?

Sometimes people refer to Thanksgiving as “Turkey Day” as a joke. It isn’t just a stereotype to have turkey (whose size depends on the number of people coming for dinner) on Thanksgiving, however some families have duck or goose. When researching for that topic, I read that some families, especially on the West Coast, serve Dungeness crab as crab season starts in the beginning of November.

When I was talking to an American friend of mine, we had talked about Thanksgiving and what he associates with it. He said, that the food of Thanksgiving was more about the asides than the turkey itself. Popular asides: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, corn, turnips, rolls, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie. Google for a recipe, if you happen to not know how to serve a proper Thanksgiving dinner.

Especially to my American readers: What’s your Thanksgiving tradition? Do you celebrate it?

Happy Thanksgiving!