A first answer for newcomers would be: watching TV, eating turkey and finding great bargains at the Mall. At least, that is how I remember my first Thanksgiving which caught me up me in a holiday that I had no clue about, except the fact that it added a couple of days off to my working calendar. So, that is what I did. I had just moved to the US, my husband was out of town and I had no friends. Therefore, I was at a complete loss. What were those days off all about and why should I celebrate them?
It’s been 8 years since that day. I had 3 kids born in Texas and some very strong roots to my adoptive Country. I got to love the wonderful reasons that Thanksgiving gives me to celebrate. Being new to a Country means that you stopped having your familiar faces and places close to you, which translates to the fact that you’ve got to open yourself to new ones.
My roots came as a professional developing my own extended network and especially with my 3 girls. As a parent and designated driver of their daily activities., roots meant finding a favorite playground, an ice-cream parlor with the right kind of ‘pink sparkles’ and an attendant that knows your name and meeting lots of other warrior parents who care greatly about having happy and entertained kids!. The fact that I go grocery shopping and I get to find people I know or that I go to a fund-raising event of my eldest girl’s elementary school and I happen to know quite a number of people may mean nothing to most. But to me it has created the atmosphere that fills my world and makes me call the beautiful suburb where I live with my family: HOME.
And home is this very International community where people from everywhere shop, sit, have coffee and share our daily lives in a very normal and routine way. I believe most of the foreigners that I’ve learned to appreciate and call my friends have come to discover what a wonderful opportunity Thanksgiving is to share with family and friends. We have risen to the occasion to enjoy ourselves and just be happy and relaxed. However, we may not follow the whole script. Some of us may have Turkey but others may have other fancy international dishes or even barbecue. We just do not stress too much about it. Most of us do not have relatives in town or in the Country to share a meal with but we have our bunch of adoptive relatives – friends – who join to have a great day of fun.
I think my kids will grow understanding and loving the American Thanksgiving holidays but as blended kids they are - whose parents come from somewhere else - they may relate those days to some additional international flavoring with those friends coming from other Countries, speaking different languages, sharing very diverse foreign accents. My girls are used to hearing people talk with accents from my friends on my European ladies’ playgroup, or our acquaintances from diverse places in Latin America . I believe it will certainly open not only their hearts, but their minds, and grow to be very inclusive citizens.
On Thanksgiving we may share our Venezuelan food with black beans, rice, black stewed cooked with lots of species, garlic, onions, butter, brown sugar plus a Coca Cola for the secret blackened touch or somebody may play exotic and bring an Indian meal or a European appetizer. But mostly we get to enjoy the fact of being able to call home where precisely our heart is.
And that is what we foreigners have in common with the Pilgrims. We’ve come with all to settle down on this land and you’ve welcomed us, we are now all part of the same Country that we call home and are thankful for.
So, there you go: Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Feliz Dia de Accion de Gracias!
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