I’m waiting in line at the “secret” coffee place I mentioned in a post once, on the phone with one of my closest friends.
“How are you? How’s the ankle?â€, he asks.
“Blue and mediocre.â€
“Wait, WHAT?â€
“Well, I’m wearing a blue dress and it still hurts. Actually, I officially sound like an Ammachi/Naniji now, because my hip hurts constantly. Apparently, three months of limping will do that to you!â€
“Smartypants, here I was worried you were ‘blue’ as in sad.â€
“Tiny bit. Always am around the holidays.â€
“Are you going home for Thanksgiving?â€
“No. Mom’s traveling, no one’s there.â€
“What timing for a trip!â€
“Well…we never really celebrated the holiday. My parents had that typical snarky comeback, you know, ‘only Americans would need a special day to be thankful for everything. Hmmph! We’re thankful daily!’…like that. So it was just a regular day at our house…with slightly different TV programs.â€
“So you have not had this…tofurkey you sent me, on Facebook?â€
“No. I don’t eat tofu.â€
“You sound sad.â€
“I guess I am, a little bit. Everyone’s rushing off with a suitcase and while I don’t really want to travel THIS week, it reminds me that they’re going to be with their family, and that does make me miss home. This is my first Thanksgiving when I’m not going anywhere. It’s a little depressing.â€
“Well, now you know what a FOB feels like.â€
Not quite, according to this though, if it is a conclusive study:
TRENTON, N.J. – Feel sleepy after the big Thanksgiving meal today? Contrary to popular thinking, it’s not the turkey’s fault.
While there is an amino acid in turkey that induces sleepiness, specialists say it’s much more likely that you’re tired after having Thanksgiving dinner because you ate and drank too much and didn’t sleep enough.
So don’t blame the turkey.
“The poor turkeys have enough problems on Thanksgiving,” said Dr. Carol Ash of Somerset Medical Center’s Sleep for Life Center in Hillsborough, N.J.
Turkey gets blamed for making people sleepy because it contains tryptophan, an amino acid that produces the brain chemical serotonin, which promotes calm and sleepiness. But as part of a big dinner, the tryptophan has a hard time reaching the brain.
Even if it did, “you’d have to ingest quite a number of turkeys” for it to have an effect, she said.
If the tiredness has anything to do with dinner, Ash said, it would be because of carbohydrates, which studies show are more likely to make people sleepy. Even that would only be a small factor, she said. There’s the travel, working longer days to get things done, and lack of sleep, along with the carbs and alcohol, she said.
Overeating also contributes to feeling tired at Thanksgiving, said Joan Salge Blake, a nutrition professor at Boston University. [Link]
It is important to make smart, healthful and sustainable food choices this thanksgiving. For those considering a different way to celebrate thanksgiving, we recommend the St Canut porcelait [Porcelet + lait]. It is a piglet reared on a diet of warm milk and vitamin rich supplements. The resulting meat is succulent, incredibly tender and lacking in the sometimes overwhelming “porky” taste one might associate with industrially raised pigs. The recipe for a slow roasted st canut piglet is given here. Enjoy.
thanks, A N N A, for this timely post. my family has been in the states for three decades and my parents still thumb up their noses at the concept of thanksgiving…”we’re indian and we only celebrate indian holidays”. late november was always a sad time growing up and i remember feeling intensely embarrassed trying to explain to my friends (2nd geners from other countries, including india, who did in fact celebrate with their families) why i did not go home for a big feast with family.
each thanksgiving i would end up at my best friend’s house (persian) and the holiday came to signify a feast of kabobs, baghali pollo, tadiq, toorshi…with some cranberry sauce and gravy on the side…and definitely a pie of some sort. so not all was lost 🙂
today i have my fiance’s family…who celebrate the holiday in a big, traditional way…even though the mother is an immigrant herself…i still feel some remnants of embarrassment when i try to awkwardly explain why my parents are not vying for my presence on the holiday. i guess it works out well for the future in-laws, because they’ll see their son each thanksgiving and christmas…versus other families with children who alternate holidays between two sets of families.
i woke up this morning again feeling kind of down about the whole thing and your post made me realize it’s okay, there are others who are feeling similarly…i’m not alone in feeling this way.
Anna,
That cranberry pickle sounds so enticing. Do you think your mom would share her recipe?
Awww, you’re not alone, at all. 🙂 There are more of us than you realize.
.
When Mom is back, I’ll see about recipes…not that she’s ever written anything down or measured, but what the hay.
My mom is in India for a funeral so I don’t get pullau, raitha, and chicken korma like we usually have on Turkey Day! Just some Indian takeout and a movie with my dad and sister. It could be worse. Happy Thanksgiving, guys 🙂
HMF, Here’s today’s CounterPunch article on Thanksgiving. It doesn’t disappoint!
Turkeys to the slaughter.
Amit, please don’t wreck mu placebo sleeping pill– so far, turkey works for me whenever I gobble some, even when I’m low carbing.
What about Thanksgiving (and christmas, for that matter) as an ex-pat in India? Much more sad than holidays like diwali or holi. I never felt the urge to go come for a few days for diwali, but the urgings to return for American holidays was intense. (and not just in India…I spent last christmas in Vietnam, went to church, heard familiar christmas carols being sung in vietnamese, and I think a tear fell.) One Thanksgiving I was dragged to the Oberoi in Bombay (or maybe the one across the street) for their dinner…I thought the idea was dumb but it was actually great; and good Turkey. But it didn’t replace home cooking in the slightest….
Daniel, read the CounterPunch article by Mike Ely that I linked to above to see why other countries do not celebrate American Thanksgiving, and count yourself well catered to in Mumbai if you could eat turkey there that day. Perhaps Desi parents who refuse to observe it (and I know a Swedish woman who won’t either) are right. I’m all in favor of harvest festivals, but this one needs an update. It’s a bit much to expect the Vietnamese to celebrate Thanksgiving, given what it celebrates.
um. ever considered cooking folks. never be wivout a homecooked meal – unless you’re really channeling the settlers [via HMF] and want to enjoi the spoils of the land without damagin the cuticle. heck bake a yam yaar.
Khoofia: I have done the homecooked-potluck thing in India a few times before, and its amazing some of the things that American friends managed to cook up (and that in much more provincial places than Khan Market, Delhi). But I was traveling that Thanksgiving in Bombay, and there wasn’t much for doing. And I don’t know if I’ve just lived in bad apartments and houses, but I’ve never had the devices necessary to bake yams, or anything else for that matter.
Amrita: I’ll check out the aritcle. But I dont understand why you think I am saying that everyone should celebrate Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or any other such holiday. In fact, I thought it a little strange that the vietnamese christian community would be interested in singing the Little Drummer Boy or Deck the Halls at all.
Daniel, Christmas isn’t American, but about Thanksgiving, I suspect most Americans can’t tell you why it’s so much bigger than Octoberfest. It certainly makes it seem to other peoples that Thanksgiving is a straightforward celebration of gluttony, which lends a comic air to the spectacle of Americans setting all else aside to eat like no tomorrow as a national holiday, see this article. I learned the Pilgrim myth as a child at The American International School in Delhi (later sold to the U.S.Embassy), so I know the enchantment of the myth, but the reality is that we participate in the wholesale slaughter of another species to commemorate, effectively, the wholesale slaughter of American Indians– without really knowing we do. I always wondered about Lincoln’s pronouncements about God having bestowed this land on the settlers…see T.C.Boyle and William Burroughs on killing turkeys, though!
Amrita, I am not unaware of these issues, but I don’t think you can blame me for using the holiday to get together with my family from all over the country and eat good food, or for reminiscing and missing my family when out of the country. You yourself said “I’m all in favor of harvest festivals, but this one needs an update.” Well, why can’t I update it for myself?
Daniel, don’t just update it for yourself, do it for everybody. Figure out a way to mitigate its bad associations and share what you figure out.
I’m not sure it’s fair to place the burden of reframing Thanksgiving on anyone here. Wherever you currently are, if you grew up in America, you tend to associate this day with family, not history. It’s great to consider the implications of everything, but let’s be compassionate– holidays tend to be about heart, not head. That’s not always a bad thing.
Happy American Thanksgiving, everyone. This is like a virtual family table conversation, arguments and all.
Today I was going to have Italian food with a pair of vegetarian friends I imposed myself on, but then I got sick (nausea on America’s biggest feast day! how ironic!) so I’m staying home.
In spite of America’s ugly history with regards to genocide and slavery, I still think something positive can be salvaged from the idea of “thanks-giving.” Today I’m thankful for so much, especially that I can genuinely feel gratitude, instead of just obligation to feel gratitude.
Also best wishes to anyone out there with a “toxic” family who avoids going home for T-Day for that reason.
For my family, this is more of a day for typical Indian dinner parties than anything else…There’s special sambars,biriyanis, and for dessert? Rasmallai and Jamuns. Indian clothes are a given. So..its not as typical, but I guess in the end, we’re just trying to give thanks by having a fun time..
“It’s great to consider the implications of everything, but let’s be compassionate– holidays tend to be about heart, not head. That’s not always a bad thing”.
it is a great thing, it means something then, right or wrong, it means something!
Happy Thanksgiving to y’all 🙂
Any special reason why Thanksgiving is so big here ? Its not a holiday in Europe or South America as far as I know.
Thanksgiving has actually become a big family holiday for us, largely because there are no other days in the year that everyone gets off to celebrate. We don’t celebrate Christmas, it seems strange/inappropriate to celebrate on a day of remembrance (e.g. Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day), and July 4th has a totally different meaning.
That said, I actually don’t think HMF’s protestations are inappropriate. When I first arrived at Cal as an undergrad I ran into people who referred to Thanksgiving as “Thankstaking”, to which I inwardly rolled my eyes. My feelings on this changed dramatically over the next few years, due in large part to the fact that had friends who were Native. I do think the broader sentiment — giving thanks — is valuable. Maybe it just needs a renaming/reframing. At any rate, for those who are celebrating, I hope it was lovely and amazing.
Because it centers around the Pilgrim-Indian (not the desi kind) myth of the first winter for British settlers (from the Mayflower, so not, in truth, the first). Beginning of a new settlement and later country, blah blah blah, etc. I’m pretty sure there’s no equivalent mythology/folklore for Europe/South America (in part because they are continents).
…although, I think a driving force behind its popularity is the lure of capitalism a la Friday sales day 🙂
There, there, Daniel. I’m sorry I was so harsh. I avoided turkey and stuffing today, but nothing else. I think instead of victory prayers to God, we should observe a minute’s silence for Squanto, who lost his head, life and limbs to make it possible for all of us to be here. Eating pumpkins.
Amrita, I think you’ve made your point well, but this is starting to remind me of the vegetarians mentioned upthread– who, though bearing good intentions, end up turning off those whom they are addressing, if that makes sense. People are very protective of family rituals, sometimes a lighter touch (not that I’d know anything about subtletly) works best. 🙂
i ate sushi. and feel asleep. what’s up with that? they put tryptophan in sushi too???
last year, i went to my roommate’s family’s house to celebrate thanksgiving.
but this year, i spent it with my family. we ate veggie pizza while watching hindi movies, but it was still nice. no turkey here, because we’re vegetarians.
With most of my friends gone to celebrate this long weekend hundreds of miles away, I gathered the few remaining ones and went out for a hike this morning. Someone shared this anecdote that I thought Id pass along.
My friend went shoe shopping and as she stood in the checkout line, she stared at the desi aunty in front of her. “I don’t need the box.”, said the aunty. The clerk wittingly replied “Sure Madam, but we charge for recycling”. His humor was obviously completely lost on our aunty who proceeded to demand taking the box with her. After some explanations, restrained laughs and lot of persuasion, she finally understood. But alas, the clerk decided to give humor a second chance as he bid our aunty farewell “Thanks, and stuff yourself with too much turkey!”. The aunty stormed out saying “I wont. I’m vegetarian!”.
Well, to all you solo-flyers on thanksgiving, hope you had a good one but remember it could be worse than spending it alone, you could spend it standing in line outside Circuit City waiting for it to open at 5am (seriously, I drove out there and there were 50 people in line at 9:30!)
[by the way, great blog, i just started visiting a couple of weeks ago]
I do not share the opinion expressed earlier that one has to view others’ misfortunes to realize how lucky one is. it reeks of narcissism and a shade of gloat. And the plain fact is, the self-congratulations may not even be deserved; however bleak one’s situation, none is more destitute than he or she who has no companion and has to seek out squalor to feel the sense of self. I was watching this feature on raven and jason and there was much to take away.
For obvious reasons, since settlers didn’t arrive in Europe, and for South America well I’m sure their history says enough…not that I can comprehend the American version of the holiday. I too think HMF has a point…
Anna, your points are well taken.
Wherever you currently are, if you grew up in America, you tend to associate this day with family, not history. It’s great to consider the implications of everything, but let’s be compassionate– holidays tend to be about heart, not head.
Anna, this is very true, however, those two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. That is, imagine a native american child growing up in this country, should he be taught to ignore the truth about what happened this country in the interest of “being about the heart, not the head.”
I think the positive, familial, ‘giving thanks’aspect of the holiday can be retained, without the “Rah Rah america is so benevolent, we saved the Indians by giving them food” narrative.
HMF, Here’s today’s CounterPunch article on Thanksgiving. It doesn’t disappoint!
This is a good aritcle, thanks Amrita.
There has been an ongoing dispute between Virginia and Massachussetts about who celebrated the first Thanksgiving. Virginia may well have chronological priority, as the historian Arthur Schlesinger Junior, writing on behalf of John Kennedy acknowleged, but there can be little doubt that the Pilgrim Fathers and Plymouth Rock have won out in the textbooks. It raises general questions about history and certainty, which of course the very name of “Sepia Mutiny” calls attention to.
Does anyone really think about that during Thanksgiving? All my Thanksgivings have been spent just talking about what’s going on in each other’s lives. Not a word about pilgrims or Indians or anything like that.
All my Thanksgivings have been spent just talking about what’s going on in each other’s lives. Not a word about pilgrims or Indians or anything like that.
I dont know your background, but growing up in this country, in elementary schools you usually dress up as a pilgrim or Indian (guess which one I’d always be.) and sit around the table and eat, and learn about how everyone was so friendly and cordial back then.
I can easily flip it and say, if history and past is so unimportant, why not start teaching the correct narrative ?
Bless up, I think it’s a different experience for school-age kids and those with school-age kids. At school the kids get inundated with the happily-ever-after Pilgrims and American Indians story. So even if families focus on being thankful and being with family at home, the exposure to the “Thanksgiving Myth” at school eventually winds up becoming part of the discussion.
HMF, you beat me to it. Dang, I need to refresh my browser more often – I keep forgetting how fast folks type on this blog.
Reading about Anna’s and other people’s close relationships with their families makes me feel really sad and jealous. I always wanted to feel close and friendly to my family, never have. We don’t have much in common and that has always bothered me. Oh well. You can’t have it all, I guess.
That really depends on the school you went to–public v. private may not be such an issue but I think the geographic location might be a better indicator. You do know that everything that has happened to you so far in life is not such a good indicator of how other people who grew up in the USA experienced the holiday for the first time? I grew up in this country as well, but I never had to dress up as an NA or a Pilgrim. My school generally took that time to talk to people who were actually making native history their life’s work, but I guess that doesn’t fit into your USA-IMPERIALIST-HEGEMONY-EVIL worldview.
Aside from publishing Benny Morris’ famous “It was a genocide but it was justified” interview and the very good dispatches from one of the Cockburn brothers in Iraq, what good is that e-rag (also good was the “Hitchens was always a bastard, not just after supporting the war” comment from the Cockburn brother who heads it up)? I thought most people had grown out of it after passing through their ‘symbolic action and socialism are worthwhile pursuits’ stage.
You do know that everything that has happened to you so far in life is not such a good indicator of how other people who grew up in the USA experienced the holiday for the first time? I grew up in this country as well, but I never had to dress up as an NA or a Pilgrim.
As that experience has been corroborated by many, it’s safe to say it’s the norm for kids in grade 1-5
My school generally took that time to talk to people who were actually making native history their life’s work
which school, what grade? if this is done at the elementary school level, its the first i’ve heard of it. The only time I remember learning about native american history in school at all was during high school, and my teacher telling us we shouldnt “over glorify the underdog” by exaggerating the native american suffering during that time.
peachy isn’t it.
but I guess that doesn’t fit into your USA-IMPERIALIST-HEGEMONY-EVIL worldview.
no, it doesnt. which is why it’s so bizarre. like I said, if you read James Loewen’s book, he surveys 13 highschool and middle school american history text books used today, none offer the true narrative of thanksgiving (and the general attitude towards native peoples)
chuckle. sorry machang, i found it a little funny. reminds me of the time when i was canoeing up north (temagami for you kids from up here) and landed on this beach. there was a wilderness camp there and the kids were playing cowboys and indians. funnily, there WAS a desi kid in there and he was playing a cowboy. So! there! so much for that theory.
interestingly later when I was driving home i met this busload of kids and their truck of canoes- jewish girls with the long black skirts – out for THEIR wilderness camp. Why dont desis have their wilderness camp, huh? why does it have to be poky little musty rooms sitting with a sad emptynester reading spirituals and eating oily bhajis. culture needs to be made. get a gun and a canoe and pepper a duck this thanksgiving.
We had the benefit of community members who were fairly close to the school–they provided the NA history education. This went on from the 1st till the 6th grade. I went to a parochial school in rural Virgina, there were no more than 30 kids in the middle school at any time during my stay. And no i’m not claiming that this is the majority experience but i notice you never allow for anything which disrupts the even flow of whatever narrative you’re jonesing on that particular day. I did go to very conventional high-schools later on, and knew teachers at Montessouri schools in the area who did not teach the happy-round-the-table narrative but pretty much skipped the whole episode.
And so if you teach ‘the real story/ies’ in elementary school regarding Thanksgiving, where do you stop? Does anybody really have the time (and gumption, since local school boards in many places are top-down infiltrated by the right-wing outrage network) to teach the ‘real’ narrative and satisfy SOL requirements. My friends currently teaching in public middle-schools say no.
No thanks. Everyone is free to create their own individual “culture” as they please. Your idea of it and mine are different. No need to tell others what to do or what methods they should use to create their own cultures.
Create your’s the way you see fit, and I’ll create mine, even if it does mean reading spirituals and eating bhaji.
And no i’m not claiming that this is the majority experience but i notice you never allow for anything which disrupts the even flow of whatever narrative you’re jonesing on that particular day.
What I said:
“but growing up in this country, in elementary schools you usually dress up as a pilgrim or Indian…”
guess that blows that theory.
Also, having proximity to a significant native population is about as rare as haleys comet, even more than that, having a school board that’s willing to connect with the native population to offer some kind of correct version is even more rare.
And so if you teach ‘the real story/ies’ in elementary school regarding Thanksgiving, where do you stop?
cross that bridge when you get to it. ideally, you’d want to eradicate all misinformation.
My friends currently teaching in public middle-schools say no.
I never said it would be easy. Usually they say, “save that for later”, the irony is, if you actually taught it correctly earlier, you wouldn’t have to worry about it later.
don’t recall ever dressing up like a pilgrim/indian, but i also never learned about the plight of the native americans until high school, despite slavery and jim crow being taught well before that.
‘Usually’ meaning what? your past commenting history shows that when you say ‘usually’ it usually means you think all other possibilities are implausible.
I didn’t say I lived next to a pueblo. this is what I said:
guess that blows your theory.
Not everyone needs to deal with a school board. Our teachers had extreme autonomy under what basic authority structure existed at the time. They could and did whatever they wished. There was really no oversight, either.
your past commenting history shows that when you say ‘usually’ it usually means you think all other possibilities are implausible.
Then that’s just a chip on your rural shoulder. Try reading the actual statement.
When most people usually say usually, they intend the word usually to mean usually, usually.
What you said:
We had the benefit of community members who were fairly close to the school
What I said:
having proximity to a significant native population
dictionary:
proxmity = nearness in place, time, order, occurrence, or relation.
close = being near in space or time.
when you said community members, I assumed you meant native american community, if you meant swedish ballerinas slightly longer than average nails, then I apologize.
guess that blows your theory.
with what, a pea shooter?
Not everyone needs to deal with a school board
then that is even more rare.
I don’t know if one could make a caricature of your commenting self as well as you do, HMF.
I’m not going to feed your insatiable hunger for pointless back-and-forths, which I can only describe as being as enjoyable as multiple prince alberts.
if you had cared to remember a single detail about another commentator other than your NOI-buddy Manju, you’d know that I grew up in an Ashram (read: religious community)and the NAs I was talking about were part of this community and knew the teachers well.
Take your snark and shove it dude, i’m done with you.
if you had cared to remember a single detail about another commentator other than your NOI-buddy Manju, you’d know that I grew up in an Ashram (read: religious community)and the NAs I was talking about were part of this community and knew the teachers well.
I dont remember details about anyone really, and would be surprised if they remembered anything about me.
Take your snark and shove it dude, i’m done with you.
Ok. although my snark detectors went up at this: but I guess that doesn’t fit into your USA-IMPERIALIST-HEGEMONY-EVIL worldview.
and my snark was just… better.
muralimannered@137, CounterPunch keeps you posted, even if you don’t read it every day. My very good friend’s dad, Ray Close, who was a senior analyst with the CIA and then head of CIA operations in the Middle East has written in CP often, among other things to protest the Bush Administration’s push to war with Iran long long ago. Vijay Prashad writes often, also P, Sainath, Uri Avnery, Missie Beattie, Tariq Ali, Ralph Nader, Mickey Z, Norman Finkelstein, Ramzy Baroud, the list goes on and on and on.. I know and correspond with some of these writers, which is one of the pleasures of the site.
I used to read it religiously in college, but grew tired of the Dr. Susan Blocks of the contributors, many of whom issued blanket generalizations of libertarians and other schools of thought not popular on the pages. Uri Avnery is nice, but unless you know someone who doesn’t belong to the same political camp (i.e. having a professor who worked for the Jerusalem Post)it’s hard to fact-check properly. It just began to seem like an echo chamber similar to the conservative blogs.
I generally think of Counterpunch as the Finkelstein of the e-newspaper world ( as opposed to a Peter Novick–note that I have read some of Finklestein’s books and I don’t believe thT he makes substantially different claims than Novick but does do it in a tone I don’t don’t find conducive to furthering discussion.)
murali, I went to elementary school in three different areas — the urban East Bay Area (arguably liberal), central Ohio (conservative), and Arizona (conservative and very near a large, but segregated, Native population). All three schools made us (students) dress up as Pilgrims and Indians (in which brown/black kids were always Indians), and when we didn’t dress up we still had to have a potluck, and when we didn’t have a potluck they still did the Pilgrims and Indians myth-telling. My siblings, who attended different schools, all had the same experience. All these school districts were public. I think the one exception to this repetition was when I went to a progressive private school for two years, where we didn’t discuss Thanksgiving at all. I think the first exposure I had to an alternative narrative re: U.S. history was when we had to read either Zinn’s People’s History or Lowen’s Lies… for Honors U.S. History in 11th grade.
I’m not trying to fuel the fire, just saying that I don’t think HMF is exaggerating. I also think the method behind how public school students are taught history (in general) is deeply problematic and makes it difficult to have meaningful dialogue when everyone gets older, but that’s a different conversation.