A F.O.B.'s Take On Thanksgiving

Before I moved to the U.S., the predominant images I had of Thanksgiving were of Pilgrims and Native Americans care of, you guessed it…Hollywood. I also thought that it was just some holiday where Americans predominantly serve turkey and pumpkin pie. Until I experienced my first Thanksgiving did I realize it was so much more than that.

I remember going to my first one when I was living in Michigan. I had just moved from the Philippines and into the freezing cold. I was so far away from my family and was very homesick. My Aunt knew someone from town (thank God for the Filipino connection) and he graciously invited me to dinner with his family. I brought a couple of homesick friends who didn’t exactly know what to expect.  Needless to say we had so much fun. They had a beautiful home and a hospitable spirit. It wasn’t any different from what I was used to back in the Philippines. If you are Filipino or know anyone who is, you know that there’s nothing like family and food to make the holidays extraordinary.

So there you go…good food and good company. That became my first real impression of Thanksgiving. Now that I am here in sunny California with relatives around, it has become much more meaningful. There would be the traditional Thanksgiving fare of turkey and some sort of pumpkin or pie, then it would be mixed in with ethnic Filipino cuisine like pancit or lumpia. The feast would look like something a small town could consume. Of course, for entertainment there would be karaoke or, for the older crowd, some type of liquor.

Looking back, Thanksgiving is really less about a historical commemoration, but more about a celebration of blessings, things and people that you are grateful about throughout the year.  Thanksgiving has been, in fact, celebrated by different cultures for centuries. It began as a simple gathering to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general.

Although, sometimes it is all too easy to lose sight of this fact as centuries go by and holidays get all too commercialized. Take out all the fluff and this is what it truly should mean - gratitude for life. So for this year, I tried to do something different by picking something I am thankful and grateful for each day through the month of November. The feeling of joy Thanksgiving brings does not only have to come once a year. Every day can be a celebration of what we are thankful for.

What are you thankful for right now?
 

-Grace is a blogger for The Daily Vine. Check out her bio to see where her view comes from.