Thanksgiving Around The World
Thanksgiving is a true American holiday and my favorite! I love it, not because it ushers the holiday season, or because it is when families gather around a wonderful feast. I love it because of its simple way to exchange gratitude. Gratitude is at the core of contentment. Isn’t being happy what life is about? This expression of gratitude has evolved over the years, from survival, to the preservation of family traditions. Again and again, we see how cultivating such gratitude within ourselves is how we find happiness. This holiday by its mere inception is the symbol of that contentment with the added emphasis of outward expression and inclusiveness. Being appreciated and included is at the core of being human, and we’re all social animals. And, as John Donne reminded us, no man is an island! Here’s a simple exercise; imagine being thanked for all your contributions, big and small. Imagine waking up to the kids making you breakfast each day, and thanking you for being you. Then, going to the office and being thanked with an appreciative email, or text for your suggestions. Wouldn’t you feel all warm and fuzzy for being appreciated? Gratitude warms the heart whether it’s received, or given. Sometimes a “thank you” is all that’s needed to disarmingly include and appreciate someone. And, Thanksgiving is the best day to do that!
Close your eyes and imagine for a minute, how many families gather on that day, setting aside their differences and struggles. Isn’t it sharing which helps us to be victorious in life? It is in our basic relationships that we find strength and hope. There is no better time than now, to really focus on the meaning of Thanksgiving. There is so much unrest in the world! So many are displaced from their homes due to either humanitarian tragedies, or catastrophic natural disasters. We have plenty to be thankful for. Living in “the land of the free” alone should be enough cause to celebrate. As a children’s book author, I feel that it’s of the outmost importance to teach stores of gratitude to the young. Stories of gratitude that can be retold to highlight the richness of one’s heritage, legacy and traditions, while treasuring a true sense of appreciation. Gratitude is the antidote to self-entitlement. And, obviously contentment and happiness go together, just like Thanksgiving and turkey.
We can trace Thanksgiving back to the day the original settlers wanted to give thanks for their bounty in 1961. They had been through such survival hardship; from food to shelter and had lost many to illness. As their lives improved, they wanted to give thanks. I have included a note at the end of the book about that first thanksgiving dinner. That holiday evolved over the years and didn’t really become a national holiday until 1941. Over 150 years go by before Thanksgiving is celebrated the way we do now-- George Washington proclaimed it a National holiday in 1789, Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November in 1863, and Congress sanctioned it as a legal holiday in 1941.
There are many Thanksgiving children’s books but not that many about why and when it became a national holiday and that’s why I wrote The Thanksgiving Dinner Platter. Thanksgiving; a holiday I did not experience when I was growing up, but one that I wholeheartedly adopted once I settled in the U.S. I absolutely love its true premise of “giving thanks!” There is so much wisdom and joy embedded in these very simple words. In the spirit of ‘giving thanks,’ I was so touched when people used the cover of my book as a thanksgiving card. It was really cool when all came full circle and someone sent it to me.
My challenge when I started working on this book was to relay the message of these words to kids with clarity—and a big smile. I admit that this story has educational goals in its effort to highlight diversity and inspire tolerance, but it was conceived primarily as a joyous tale of two children having a unique Thanksgiving experience.
The Thanksgiving Dinner Platter features the friendship between a Native American boy and a Japanese-American girl. And, for fun, I set the entire book in 1941 and included a simple recipe for cornbread! The recipe is based on the first Thanksgiving dinner eaten by the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians at Plymouth Plantation. I threw in a few Japanese words for good measure, and concluded with the kids sharing their special bread with veterans at the VA and a true historic reference to how Thanksgiving became a national holiday.
I’m so thankful to the teachers who have adopted my book and are using it in their classroom. Most recently David Jadunath, a MT teacher suggested the use of a globe, reading it outloud and asking the children to pick countries around the world and talk about whether or not they too have a day of thanks!
As a children’s book author and illustrator, I believe kids are stronger if they are helped early on to understand a bit more of the world around them. If they are taught to be more receptive to differences in traditions and ideas, they are more likely to be confident and interactive adults.
Having grown up around the Mediterranean, I was taught that family and holiday celebrations go hand in hand. My mother looked forward to festive celebrations of Christmas and Easter, and planned them for months. I have fun childhood memories of such festivities where a fleet of young siblings and cousins were running around, playing games, whispering, arguing, and laughing together. The older kids helped with the cooking and the setting of the glorious dinner table, and the younger ones basked in awe of all the colorful commotion.
I think of those festive days and their warm glow flows over me once again.
Here are a few suggestions for using The Thanksgiving Dinner Platter or other Thanksgiving children’s books in a classroom:
1-Kids can be instructed to imagine themselves at the first Thanksgiving dinner and asked what kind of cooking utensils were used at the time. Bring grinding tools and pound dried corn kernels as was once done to make cornmeal. Ask students how they think the turkey was cooked, and discuss the differences between life then and now. Kids can participate by reading the story out loud, and by following the cornbread recipe. Ask them what they’d be most thankful for when it comes to daily comfort.
2-Research, either together or prior to class, whether or not other countries have similar celebrations. Is there a Japanese Thanksgiving? Spanish? Russian? Is similar food served? Does the holiday mean the same thing? They can look at pictures of different festive dishes and discuss their different ingredients. This site includes exotic recipes, and I’m sure there are many more!
3-The Thanksgiving Dinner Platter can be read out loud to showcase Japan’s Day of Thanks and clippings from Japan’s celebration can be shared. Discovering Japan’s way of celebrating, as with other cultures, will not only open minds but prove to be fun, too!
Discuss what Takari learned in the course of the story, and how and why she began to appreciate blessings, big and small. Ask your students: How did her snapping at her dog make her understand her mom’s anger? Use the true historic vignette at the end of the book to discuss when and how Thanksgiving became a national holiday.
4-Use a globe to discuss different countries and their way of ‘giving thanks’. Here are a few:
Japan’s Day of Thanks
Labor Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday. Japanese people use this day to give thanks for their blessings and to show appreciation to government, education and hospital workers. Around the 23th of November.
Canada: Canadian Thanksgiving
They celebrate their thanksgiving the second Monday in October and they too have parades, watch sports and share turkey dinner.
Malaysia: "Kadazan Harvest” Celebration
They offer gratitude for a good rice harvest and is observed in May.
Barbados: Crop Festival
Giving gratitude for a good sugar harvest and families gather around feast
China’s Moon Festival
Familes gather to celebrate the harvest season with a huge feast. Traditionally they serve ‘mooncakes’ as the moon is at its brightest around that day usually the 15th day of the 8th lunar month-September or October.
Korean Day of Gratitude (Chuseok)
A three day celebration in August that pays respect and honors ancestors and thanks them for their contributions.
Liberian Day of Thanks
They celebrate Thanksgiving on the first Thursday in November. Some of the traditions are similar to The US.
Ghana’s Homowo Festival
They give thanks for their bounty with glorious feasts featuring dishes with yams. It takes place around harvest time between May and August.
Israel’s Feast of Tabernacles
?A celebration of a good harvest that follows Passover. Some celebrate in huts as reminder of the temporary shelters that their people sought during their desert pilgrimage.
Italy’s Cerelia
The Romans celebrate the Goddess of Corn festival on the 4th of October.
Brazil’s Gratitude Day
It is said that the Ambassador of Brazil experienced American Thanksgiving and loved it so much that he brought the concept to his homeland. Dia de Ao de Graas, take place on the fourth Thursday of November. But it isn’t a national holiday. Like in the U.S., there is a turkey and stuffing.
Vietnam: Têt-Trung-Thu Festival
Also called the Children’s Festival. People ‘give thanks’ for their blessings on the 15th day of the eighth lunar moon. Feasts and handmade lantern night processions are typical.