In them old days, Thanksgiving was a celebration of the harvest. According to the history books, in 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans.
Although this feast is considered by many to the very first Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops. Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America. The traditional menu consisted of bean soup, some form of protein (believed to be awild fowl or venison) and some basic starch (pumpkin)- there was no pecan pie or marshmallow tart or any of the new foods that have entered the thanksgiving menu..
My history of Thanksgiving:
As many of you know, we have celebrated Thanksgiving since we started business school due to the large number of American students and friends and now future husbands that we have.. Its often been a pretty international crew - the first 2003 event had Sarah and Zack, some of their friends and Andreja. I skipped that event as I was not feeling too great, but did get to eat the thanksgiving meal in the LBS dining room with Olivia Selbie and a few others. In 2004, it got a bit bigger, as we had Abby Phenix living with Flat 31, together with a german, an Indian, a Slovenian and myself, a South African. John was also at the home.. We also had another dinner with the Jarvis in Pimlico and Sarah's study group not to mention a few others...
2005 got even bigger: We had the Aussies (Sam and Aris), The Greek/Iranian/British: Alex, The Texan indian: Kaunteya (unmarried then), Jane, and a few others and in 2006, we had close to 20 people, all international with exception to Sarah, John and Zack or and yes, Jane..We ordered an organic turkey from the Ginger Pig and it came with some of its feathers.. in the UK organic also means hand plucked.. It cost us close to GBP35 but were fortunate to have been able to return it and then headed to Sainsbury's and got a "clean"turkey. Remember that amazing chocolate tart that Alex made - that has now become a tradition for our Thanksgiving.. together with corn bread, my tamarind roasted vegetables..
In 2006, we all stated what we were thankful for and what made the day special for us.. Who would have thought that this year, in 2007, so many of us would be in so many different places.. We still give thanks for having the wonderful friends and family around, even though we are so far apart..
This years, thanksgiving was shared with John's family, all of which came to SD to enjoy it with us. We still ordered an organic turkey, this one came with one less wing.. and cost us about USD50 - guess it would have been more if it had the wing, but all the feathers were plucked.. We ensured that some of the specials we had in 2006 were on the menu, but was really missing was all of you.. it was great having john's nephew and niece with us.. We missed you all and hope that we can all share Thanksgiving with each other sometime soon.
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