The different shades of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving dinner 2021. Photo and meal by author.
As another Thanksgiving season comes around, it is interesting to look at what the holiday means to different people. On the one hand, its gruesome history calls into question whether it is something we should be celebrating. On the other hand, the basic premise of its modern celebration can mean different things to different people.
As a first generation Indian American, my family never consistently celebrated Thanksgiving. We didn’t have extended family in the U.S., so apart from the occasional Friendsgiving invite, Thanksgiving time didn’t mean much for us. It wasn’t until I caught a bug for cooking, that it became an annual ritual that we looked forward to.
Thanksgiving dinner 2020. Photo and meal by author.
I loved having an excuse to cook an exorbitant amount of American food, inviting whoever was free to eat it with us. The classic Thanksgiving dishes are also not regular features in our Indian household, so it was the one day of the year where I experimented with things like roasting a whole bird. Over the years, Thanksgiving has become one of my favorite holidays, if only as the day I spend in the kitchen filling the table with every kind of carb I can think of.
For many, Thanksgiving is a time to gather with family and friends and celebrate all that you have to be grateful for. It is about old family recipes passed down, and traditions that go back generations. For many, it is a time of mourning. Remembering and honoring the Indigenous people who faced tremendous violence at the hands of British colonizers in the 17th century. Remembering that native populations still face discrimination and violence in the U.S. to this day.
Then there are those, for whom Thanksgiving means something else entirely. People who didn’t grow up in the U.S. hearing wildly inaccurate descriptions of a “first Thanksgiving.” Those, for whom Thanksgiving represents something uniquely American (aside from the genocide bit).
Thanksgiving dinner prep 2019. Photo by author.
I spoke to some friends, relatively recent immigrants to the U.S., about their experiences with Thanksgiving. Like me, it took them a while to get into the festivities.
“My third year we had two Thanksgiving dinners, and we made all the food that you make on Thanksgiving,” said Disha Naik, who first moved to the U.S. in 2018. “I’ve always heard about Thanksgiving but I never really knew what it was or the meaning of it, and then I came to America and I realized it’s such a nice celebration.”
For a young person coming to this country for the first time, Thanksgiving isn’t about tradition or contentious history. Instead, it’s about embracing the experiences of a new terrain with new friends.
“It’s really nice to appreciate other people’s food, everyone brings something, you enjoy everyone’s food and the presence of your friends and family,” said Naik.
Homemade banoffee pie. Photo by author.
On the other hand, the notion of a feast anchored by a giant roasted bird is not something most vegetarians would be eager to participate in.
“My first Thanksgiving was in 2018. It was my first time here and a lot of friends invited me but as I’m a vegetarian, I didn’t go,” said Plaksha Wagh. Instead of Thanksgiving, Wagh opted to celebrate a holiday that many Indians in the U.S. hold very dear, Black Friday. “We didn’t sleep, we were just shopping the whole night.”
I have known families who gather for Thanksgiving and prepare a large feast with dishes from their own native land, disregarding what is typically considered “Thanksgiving food.” There are people who spend the day volunteering in the spirit of being thankful, and those who drink beer and watch reruns of classic Thanksgiving sitcom episodes.
Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving for the food, for the company, or you don’t celebrate it at all, take the time this year to engage in land acknowledgement and work on decolonizing your Thanksgiving.
Some additional resources:
Hassleback butternut squash. Photo by author.
