On Thanksgiving

What a great holiday. One that I am perfectly comfortable with adopting. One that still has managed to retain the true spirit of the actual holiday without being tainted by commercialism. (Unless you count the butter that is carved into the shape of a turkey....but I suppose that more novelty than commercialism?) It's a perfect way to start the holiday season, when much of the spirit of the actual holiday gets lost in the whirlwind of events and retail stress. But I digress....
What makes me smile (or on meaner days, wonder how stupid a person could actually be), is when people ask if England has Thanksgiving. Hmmmm. Lets just take a moment to let that question sink in. Does England have Thanksgiving? (Silence.)
On a good day, I smile and say no, we don't (poor us right?), we just have Harvest festival in September (What's that? Good question. Goggle it.) On meaner days, what I really want to say is (ear muffs now) "WTF?? Are you kidding me? Did you not pay attention in school? Even I know the history of thanksgiving and I'm a f&*#ing immigrant...."and so on and so forth.
So, I have been thinking about why people ask the question in the first place. I think it's for a few reasons, and please, descendants of the May Flower, feel free to help me out.
First, you LOVE thanksgiving so much, you can't envisage a place where the great Turkey Day doesn't exist. I mean, what do English people do the on the last Thursday in November? No turkey? (Not until Christmas) No football ? (Just the real kind where we kick the ball - football?) No pumpkin pie? (Again, no....but just wait until Christmas...our boozy desserts will knock your socks off!) Second, the histories of our two countries are so intertwined that at times maybe it's hard to know who keeps what sacred and who celebrates what. But funnily, no one seems to ask if we celebrate the Fourth of July. And both holidays have similar roots...the desire to the escape persecution and the shackles of the British monarchy. Is the violent aspect of the War of Indepence that makes the reasons for the holiday more obvious? Or is it that the justifications for that war are reiterated again and again? And rightly so. While the emphais in the Thanksgiving story semes to be the struggle of the pilgrims, the poverty and near-death during a harsh winter in an unknown land, the help and support of the native people, and the beginnings of a country that embraces freedom of worship and speech. Third, and this is perhaps the most cynical of the three ideas - that America is still a wee bit isolationist. Just a bit. I mean, I can understand why...Europe is far away. Why would you know what goes on in November in a tiny little, damp island? America is SO damn big, that it's hard to keep straight on what's going on in twenty five of the states, let alone all fifty....so no hope for the rest of the world. Unless you are talking Royal weddings. Then you guys are more updated than I am.
Anyway, I guess the question just tickles me. I am sure that I sound obnoxious for even giggling about it. I mean, British people wouldn't know, for example, why Americans even celebrate Thanksgiving. (A little side-trip here...in English education, they seem to gloss over the whole period in history where Britain started to loose British citizens to the colonies. They actually omit the whole period of enlightenment - unless you go to university - and skip right from one Golden Age (the Elizabethans) to another; the Victorians. Strange that. Denial perhaps?)
Regardless, I shall happily brine, roast, and serve my turkey for my American family tomorrow. The boys and I will hang our homemade Thanksgiving decorations. And we will be truly thankful for family, friends, and life itself.