Happy Thanksgiving

🍁 It's a special day in the United States. As on every fourth Thursday in November, they celebrate Thanksgiving, a feast originally giving thanks for a good harvest (as is still done all around the world) but nowadays often thought as a commemoration of the first feast the Pilgrims had with the native Americans.

🍁 In Germany, we celebrate our Harvest Festival (German: Erntedankfest) on the first Sunday in October. But it is more a church tradition than a family celebration. The churches are decorated with harvest crops and there usually is a collection for local charities. In the United Kingdom, where we lived a couple of years, they have a similar practice, only they also donate food to be given to local food banks.

🍁 As I mentioned in my post about my Non-Bookish Hobbies, we have lived among and worked with Americans for decades and have adapted their way of Thanksgiving for our German friends and family who love this glimpse of a different culture. We've done this every year (with one exception) since 2006. Unfortunately, we might not be able to share it this year, either. Therefore, just a little reminder to all of us to enjoy what we can and start doing the other things once we get the "all clear" from our governments again.

🍁 Our dishes vary from time to time, depending on who comes and whose favourite food it is but, so far, we have served:
🦃 Turkey, pulled pork; cranberry sauce, gravy; cornbread, corn pudding, macaroni & cheese; bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes; baked beans, cauliflower, corn on the cob, green bean casserole, spiced carrots; apple pie, blueberry pie, lemon meringue pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie.

🦃 My artist niece and her father (one of my brothers) made a Turkey for us from an old pottery chicken my parents had in their house. They called him "Henry" and has been a member of our group ever since. It's almost as if my parents still participated. (picture with the compliments of my hubby)

🍁 One other part that belongs to our Thanksgiving just as much as the turkey and all the other stuff is a movie by one of my favourite directors, Gurinder Chadha. Her parents are Indian, she was born in Kenya and grew up in the UK. Add to that her husband who is American with Japanese and Basque ancestry, the couple combines almost all the continents among them. Gurinder Chadha mainly makes films about Indian lives in the UK (Bend it Like Beckham is probably her most famous though one of my favourites is Bride & Prejudice).

🍁 Anyway, through her husband, she got to know Thanksgiving and she mentioned that most families have one thing in common, the turkey, but the rest of the food depends very much on their origin. So, for her film What's Cooking? she created four families with different cultural backgrounds (Latino, Asian, African and Jewish) and shows their Thanksgiving. Gurinder Chadha received several awards for it, well deserved. It's a wonderful movie with a fantastic cast and if you haven't seen it, please, please, watch it this year. It's our "Groundhog Day" moment of the year (although we do watch that one, as well, on the 2nd of February).

🍁I wish all my US American friends and anyone else who celebrates
a very happy Thanksgiving. 🍁

🍁 🦃 🥧 🎉 🍁