Thanksgiving isn’t exactly big in Colombia. The only tradition I managed to salvage was watching football; we put the Lions Patriots game on over lunch at work. I had a ham and cheese sandwich.
What’s the big deal about Thanksgiving anyways? We gather together with family, watch football, and eat too much. Whoopie-doo. No presents, not many decorations, and let’s face it, even though it’s technically about the pilgrims and the Native Americans, you learn about it in second grade, make a cute hand turkey, and that about marks the end of it. But everyone loves Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving.
This is my third Thanksgiving out of the country, my first away from my family. Having “seen” the holiday from an outsider’s perspective, I finally figured out what makes Thanksgiving so great. It’s 100% American. The United States has an extremely unique social culture, but when it comes to food and holidays, we kinda just steal from everyone else and Americanize it: burgers, pizza, Chinese food, sandwiches, etc. We didn’t exactly invent that. Christmas, Hanukah, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day… not quite. But Thanksgiving? That’s ours; only ours. We watch football, a game that the U.S. enjoys far more than any other country. We eat turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, casseroles, stuffing, apple cider, and pumpkin pie. There’s not even a translation for those foods in Spanish because they simply do not exist. And even though I already negated the relativity of the pilgrims and the Native Americans, can anyone else claim that as part of their history?
Every day, every minute, this world becomes more and more globalized, less and less ethnocentric. I’m all for it; I’m a citizen of the world. But Thanksgiving, that stays with us. I’m thankful for that.
This year, I’m also thankful for technology. Ew right? I’m supposed to say family, friends, and good health. Plus, I’m not even good with technology: I have a Blackberry, but I don’t have it synced to my email account and I still write my daily agenda on the palm of my hand; I have a kindle, but I have yet to play with any of its multifaceted capabilities other than reading from the screen; I have an iPod… correction had an iPod, with no more than 200 songs on it. But this year more than ever, technology, primarily GChat and Skype, has kept me close to those things I’m really thankful for. Last Thursday I watched the Bears beat the Dolphins with my Mom and Dad through Skype. It was like I was there in the family room. Today I got to talk to my entire family. I saw my sister-in-law’s pregnant belly that holds my nephew; my Dad and my brothers; and my Mom preparing dinner. I could practically smell the turkey. And thanks to the 21st century’s advanced mailing system, I received a hand-written letter from my Aunt Mary wishing me a happy day.
What’s not to love about Thanksgiving?
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