Thanksgiving? What’s Thanksgiving?

I’m writing this specifically for this week’s Carnival of Family Life. The theme was ‘Thanksgiving’, which I felt pretty much dealt me out because we do not practice it in Australia. Then I thought a bit more and remembered I have been lucky enough to experience Thanksgiving first hand and perhaps it might be nice for others to hear a fresh, wide-eyed, non-jaded recount of the holiday. I should first admit my continuing ignorance, and I’m sure there are fellow Australians who would plead similarly. I knew Canada held the holiday a full month before America, but to be honest I thought, for them, Thanksgiving and Halloween fell at roughly the same time. I had to check Wikipedia to find out the specifics (it’s the third Thursday, who’d have guessed it, in November, apparently, fellow Aussies). All the rest I know of is from the movies: feasts of food with Turkey as the main ‘attraction’, family-get-togethers-and-inevitable-fighting, and lots of decorating in orange and brown hues to symbolise the end of the harvest season*. That’s about it. That’s all I know. I was in Canada in October 1995, visiting my aunt who was living there for a period. Her friends invited us all around to join their Thanksgiving dinner. I kept quite a detailed travel journal, but unfortunately it’s at my parent’s house, so I cannot go find it to check what we ate. My only real memory of the meal was an entire table filled with foods I had rarely, if ever, eaten before; especially pumpkin pie, which tasted a little funny to me. My greatest emotional memory was of a lovely evening; of warm, fuzzy acceptance and kindness (a small glass of wine helped stoke those feelings too!) This lasted until the food was cleared away and I was shooshed off down to the basement with our host’s teenage son so the adults could have a ‘break’. I also remember the giant toilet bowls which re-fill almost to the top after every time they flush. I never went to the toilet without the fear that at some point I would cause a plumbing disaster. Our toilets over here use a quarter of the water, I think! Australia will never have Thanksgiving; it’s not part of our history or culture. Culturally speaking, there is a huge backlash at the growing number of trick-or-treaters who are appearing every Halloween so I can just guess what would happen if we celebrated Thanksgiving. But I think it would be special if we did get to experience it, just once. Our main holiday is Christmas, which is inevitably tied up with the giving and getting of presents. As far as I know, you don’t get presents at Thanksgiving. It’s about giving thanks. We should all endorse that! Am I right? *If I’ve fact-checked wrong here in any way, be sure to let me know.