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Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving Day
Siddhi B Ranjitkar
Happy Thanksgiving, greets each other on the sidewalk, at home, and at the family gathering, and so on. It is the last or the fourth Thursday in November. Every year Americans celebrate the “Thanksgiving Day”: the post harvest festival for thanking the bumper crops. The Anglo-Saxons emigrants called Pilgrims brought this tradition of Thanksgiving Day with them to America in early 1600s.
Americans commonly trace the Thanksgiving holiday to a 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the settlers held a harvest feast after a successful growing season. Autumn or early winter feasts continued sporadically in later years, first as an impromptu religious observance, and later as a civil tradition. (Source: Wikipedia.com)
“Thanksgiving Day” is something like the “Dashain” for Nepalese. Turkey is the main item of celebration as the castrated goat for the Nepalese in Dashain. Roasted or baked turkey with different kinds of stuffing in it and other items such as mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and other dishes depending on the choices are the main festive items.
A roasted turkey sits at the center of the dinning table. A knife sits next to it. Everybody carves out a piece of turkey on her or his plate, then picked up mashed potatoes and pours on it gravy, and takes sweet potatoes, sweet corn, various fall vegetables and any other items on the table. The family head sitting at the head of the dinning table says some words of thanks before really starting the “Thanksgiving” festive meal.
As the roasted turkey for the Americans, “mashu bhat” is the Dashain festival meal usually in October. “Mashu” is the meat of a castrated goat cooked for several hours as a turkey roasted for several hours depending on its size and weight. “Bhat” is the boiled white rice. For many Nepalese, “mashu bhat” had been a once-a-year-festive meal in the past, as the then rulers had eaten up most of their earnings.
Nepalese did not need a lesson on cooking the castrated goat meat but the Americans have a flood of cooking tips. Every newspaper, TV, and other means of mass communications carries a lengthy tips and recipes for cooking and marinating turkeys.
Some institutions and companies offered their staff free turkeys: one each of course. Average weight of a turkey is about 15 lbs (about 7 kg) but its weight varies from 10 lbs to 20 lbs. So, one turkey is more than enough for a family. A few days before the “Thanksgiving Day”, a frozen turkey has to undergo defrosting for every family.
On the eve of the “Thanksgiving Day”, people shop for drinks: hard and soft, stuffing for a turkey, other stuffs such as potatoes: sweet and regular, pies and veggie turkeys. A veggie turkey is made of vegetables stuffed on an eggplant cut into a half and then covered with a split-up half squash that gives a little bit of impression of a real turkey.
Shoppers crowd in every provision store. Some provision stores give shoppers samples of wine and pies particularly the pumpkin pie to taste. After the Halloween festival a large number of pumpkins goes to making pies.
Wednesday: the day before the “Thanksgiving Day” is the day for travel. Most of the companies and institutions release their staff after lunch enabling them to travel to their parents, grandparents and other family members. People travel in such a large number that all the highways looked like filled up with cars.
Nepalese travel to their homes a week before the Dashain festival. All the passenger buses are filled out to their capacities and even more as some passengers even opt to sit on the roof of buses. Kathmandu becomes quieter. The vehicular traffic goes to hibernation in Kathmandu during the Dashain festival.
On “Thanksgiving Day,” we found the Belmont town in Massachusetts almost in sleep. A very few souls seemed to be existed. No noise of machines disturbed the sleeping town. Vehicles did not run for almost a day, as if all the people have been at the dinning tables or living rooms.
“Thanksgiving Day” is the day for the political, social and business gossips, too. Some newspapers published the tips for gossips. The tips are mainly for not antagonizing the persons holding different political views. The time is just right for the political gossips, as some politicians have been campaigning for winning the nominations of their respective party for the candidacy for the presidential election in the next November.
Some charitable organizations, communities and the Salvation Army serve the “Thanksgiving meals” to the less fortunate people. Even President Barack Obama and his two daughters served the holiday meals to the poor on the “Thanksgiving Day”. So, nobody goes without a holiday meal on the “Thanksgiving Day”.
Some towns hold a Thanksgiving Day Parade. People get together at the main town center and march to another destination. Some hold balloons, flags and placards dedicating to the festival. Others dressed up as a turkey march on the street entertaining the sidewalk watchers. New York holds a Macy’s parade every year.
Nepalese visit their seniors and honorable people on and after the tenth day of the Dashain festival to receive the blessings from them, and the blessing of the supreme goddess: the symbol of killer of evils.
President Barack Obama pardoned two turkeys on Wednesday. Those turkeys will live their lives. Those were lucky ones unlike the millions of turkeys that ended up on the festive tables as delicacies.
President George H. W. Bush set the annual tradition of the turkey pardon in 1989. President John F. Kennedy had unofficially spared a turkey on November 19, 1963. He was the first president to spare the turkey. Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the President with one live turkey and two dressed turkeys, in a ceremony known as the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation. (Source: wikipedia.com)
Every school and some companies closed on Friday after the “Thanksgiving Day.” This day is also popularly known as the “Black Friday”. On this day some stores open up as early as 4:00 am. People go to such stores and lined up at the doors to go in first and grab the things at first fearing soon such things might go out of stock. People believe that some stores sell everything at a dirt (very cheap) price. So, such stores are crowded with the shoppers on the “Black Friday.”
This day is the beginning of the Christmas season. So, it is the day of lighting up the Christmas tree. Thus, immediately after the “Thanksgiving Day”, the Christmas season starts.
Actually the “Thanksgiving Day” is a four-day festival. Completing the Wednesday-half-day work, people enjoy free time through Sunday. Four-day off is a great holiday for the holiday-starved Americans.
November 27, 2015
