Thanksgiving, a traditional holiday celebrated by Americans and Canadians, does not have a true meaning among Chinese people, at least to my family. Sure, it is to thank the Native Americans for their help and blah, blah… Like we don’t know the dark history of the United States at the time. I know that many people compare this holiday with Christmas and New Year, but for us, we are more likely to align Thanksgiving with Columbus Day—the day off that has many things on sale, but a LARGER one. The only similarity is that like most families in America, we also try to have a get together with friends or family, although most of the time it is just an informal dinner and nothing much.
SO, when my mom suggested that we should have a real Thanksgiving dinner, with the whole turkey and all that, I was simply shocked. Then again, I had never have a whole turkey and those traditional side dishes before, so the idea ringed in my head. On Thursday, we prepared many dishes, merging a traditional dinner with a touch of Chinese; I even baked a tart for dessert! Finally, we finished the preparation.
The dinner was at my aunt’s house. We invited some friends and people that we are close with. We sat down. We ate. We talked. The dinner was great. The food was amazing (well, usually self-cook dishes are amazing). We joked around afterward. My mom brought out my dessert and all of our guests liked it. At around eight o’clock, we left the house with a full stomach.
Of course, we considered it a tradition Thanksgiving dinner.
But I still don’t get the meaning of it though.
I know exactly how you feel.
Coming from a Russian family, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving for the literal meaning as many people do. We celebrate as a family gathering. The food as well is a mix of both cultures.
We have the Turkey and the Cranberry sauce on one side of the table. The other side we have vinaigrette, kvass, and other Russian delicatessen.
It’s an amazing to see the two cultures juxtaposed on one table and your encounter shows this!