Feest Isolation Days – 26 November
Happy Thanksgiving! Getting together over Thanksgiving is the American way. A big meal centred around a turkey and shared with loved ones is the order of the day. The menu usually includes turkey, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. Depending on where you are in the States, the other ingredients for a thankful meal vary.
The festival can trace its origins back to 1621. The story we were told in elementary school was that the Native Americans taught the struggling colonists from the Mayflower how to survive. The first celebration of that accomplishment was with the Wampanoag tribe when ninety Native American Indians and about fifty survivors from the Mayflower attended. The feast lasted for three days. Apparently the peace didn’t last. The next decade found the previously thankful immigrants locked in battle with the tribe.
They left that part out when we were in elementary school. Instead, we drew pictures of turkeys and people wearing old fashioned outfits and were treated to the school’s version of thanksgiving dinner in the cafeteria before we went home to share our real dinner with our family.
Over the years, the Thanksgiving festival has become the start of the Holiday Season and travel over Thanksgiving is brutal. Everyone aims to get to their family and tend to have Christmas at home with their more immediate family.
My last Thanksgiving in the States was several years ago while my father and brother were still alive. My sister and her husband created an outstanding feast that we all shared. When the meal ended, we all went round the table and said what it was that we were thankful for. My father was thankful to have had the opportunity to be with all of us. It was special and memorable.
Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade happens in New York City on Thanksgiving morning, and the last person in the Parade is Santa on his special float. In the afternoon after the dishes are all put away and no one can move far as they’ve all eaten too much, people settle in front of the telly and watch very fit men play American Football. The National Football League play some great games on Thanksgiving day.
This year with Covid around, the hope is that people don’t travel so far and when they do they do it safely. We are not out of the woods yet. This virus hasn’t finished.
Our plan for the day is to have dinner for the two of us, as ever, and we will end the meal with Pumpkin pie and a big dollop of thanks. We have much to be grateful for and it’s always good to celebrate that fact.
Stay safe and enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving!
(Perfect for my former Kidney Doc!)
With love
Kathy x