It’s that time of year where Americans stuff their faces with complex carbohydrates followed by a series of resolutions to loose weight for the New Year. This is what Thanksgiving may look like to those unfamiliar with this American tradition. For me, this time of year always brings back memories of my youth when my friends and teachers would react to my excitement of this holiday with comments like, “Filipinos celebrate Thanksgiving? So do you guys eat Turkey?” I often reflected on these comments from my time in college to my now so called “adult years.” What I realized was that although these people saw me as a foreigner I failed to properly answer their question by stating, “Yes we do celebrate Thanksgiving, it’s a time to thank God for all the benefits that we received even if we are American or immigrants.”

Yes, Filipinos do celebrate Thanksgiving but we do put a certain Pinoy twist to the celebration by including rice, lechon, adobo, dinuguan, and many dishes that would certainly result in the case of the gout. People need to realize that this time of year is not about what dishes are set on the table. What is important is celebrating it with those closest to you, which is something that is priceless.

Finally, I’d like to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving!

History of Thanksgiving in the U.S.

Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, presently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, has been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863. It did not become a federal holiday until 1941. Thanksgiving was historically a religious observation to give thanks to God, but is now primarily identified as a secular holiday.

The First Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God for helping the pilgrims survive the brutal winter. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days providing enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Indians. The traditional Thanksgiving menu often features turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. Americans may eat these foods on modern day Thanksgiving, but the first feast did not consist of these items. On the first feast turkey was any type of fowl that the pilgrims hunted. Pumpkin pie wasn’t on the menu because there were no ovens for baking, but they did have boiled pumpkin. Cranberries weren’t introduced at this time. Due to the diminishing supply of flour there was no bread of any kind. The foods included in the first feast included duck, geese, venison, fish, lobster, clams, swan, berries, dried fruit, pumpkin, squash, and many more vegetables.