The "Is 'Thanksgiving' An American Holiday Only?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  It was a week or two before our Thanksgiving holiday in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and I was corresponding with a friend via email that Carol and I got to know who lives on the island of Sint Maarten.  Barbara Cannegieter and  her husband Dee live on a hill overlooking the capital of the Dutch side of the island, Philipsburg.  Barbara at one time lived in Williamsport, Pennsylvania so I was interested as to whether she and Dee celebrate Thanksgiving as she did when she lived in Williamsport many years ago.  She returned my email and told me the island does not celebrate Thanksgiving as we do in the United States, but that they have so many visitors from the United States to the island in the Caribbean that many of the restaurants will serve the traditional Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving Day.  Great for business and gives those from the states a chance to have a celebratory Thanksgiving meal.  Carol and I began to talk and wondered if there are any other countries that celebrate the holiday that I assumed was an American holiday since it was the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians that shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies.  Well, it seems there are eight other countries that celebrate Thanksgiving, or at least a form of Thanksgiving.  They are as follows:

1. Liberia.  Liberia brought the Thanksgiving tradition directly from America, owing to its beginnings as a resettlement colony for freed black Americans. The West African country declared its independence in 1847, but it American connection is still seen in its national flag which mirrors the U.S. design.  They celebrate Thanksgiving on the first Thursday in November.
2. Canada.  Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October and integrates a number of traditions, including turkey although regional dishes such as salmon are common.  They also connect their holiday with the fall harvest, since their homeland is separated from America by just a border line.  They also celebrate the day with a football game and a big parade.
3. Australia.  Their Thanksgiving is just like American Thanksgiving with a turkey dinner.  It really is celebrated as a direct result of sailors and whaling ships bringing the tradition to Norfolk Island, which is an Australian territory.  They celebrate Thanksgiving on the last Wednesday of November as well as in July when they have Thanksgiving and Christmas-style festivities because that's when the weather Down Under is closest to that of winter in Europe and America.
4. Japan.  Japan has what is known as the harvest celebration of Niiname-no-Matsuri, which was a Shinto ritual enacted by the Emperor.  It got the name of Labor Thanksgiving Day during the post-World War II occupation of Japan by the United States.  Their interpretation of the holiday commemorates labor , production and peace.  School children make card for public servants like health care workers, police, firefighters and members of the Japanese Self-Defense Force and Coast Guard.  
5. United Kingdom.  The harvest Festival of Thanksgiving is the closest thing to the American Thanksgiving.  The official date is set for September or October and collecting food to donate to charities is a common activity.  The celebration, which goes back to ancient Britain, is in the form of a community gathering.
6. Germany.  Erntedankfest is celebrated on the first Sunday of October.  It too is a harvest celebration, but is largely religious in nature.  The holiday is a debate, gratitude-oriented affair.  
7. India.  The Harvest Thanksgiving Festival of India is called Thai Pongal (or Ponkal).  It is a four-day affair held in January to praise the Sun God.  Its history goes back ten centuries.  Rice is central to the celebration with the boiling of the first rice of the harvest season.
8. Philippines.  As an American colony they held their American version of Thanksgiving.  During WWII, when Japan occupied the islands, the celebration went underground.  Then President Ferdinand Marcos reinstituted it as a September observation under his reign.  When he left in 1986 it was discontinued, but brought back by the SM Supermalls chain of shopping centers.  They now offer big Thanksgiving sales around September which is the kick-off to the Christmas Season.  And, we think we overdo it at Christmas!

I would have never guessed there were this many countries that celebrate Thanksgiving.  Perhaps America stole the term from one of these eight countries, since many of them seem to be older than the United States of America.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "On Giving Thanks" Story

Editorial page from November 24, 1965.
Click on image to enlarge.

It was an ordinary day.  Looking through the archives of our local newspaper to see how people in the past celebrated Thanksgiving Day in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  I found most every year featured stories about the Thanksgiving Day turkey as well as recipes to make just about anything imaginable associated with the turkey holiday.  One story that caught my eye was an editorial from the Lancaster New Era on November 24, 1965 which happened to be the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  The story was part of the column that had a headline of...OUR IDEAS.  At the time there were two newspapers that were printed daily in Lancaster; the New Era in the evening and the Intelligencer Journal in the morning.  The editorial was so well-written that I have decided to use it as my story today, since it could have been written for today's newspaper; except for a few minor changes.  It's message describes today's culture and history, just as it did 54 years ago.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - for those who live in the United States and celebrate Thanksgiving,  A Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours.

On Giving Thanks

     Observance of Thanksgiving this year should  bring to every American a mixture of both joyous and solemn thoughts.  
     This is a day of creature comfort, for we are in a period of prosperity.  
     But it is also a day of armed conflict, when our men overseas are dying in freedom's cause.   
     We have come a long way from the day of the Pilgrims, but we are linked to them far more closely than we realize.
     The Pilgrims struggled to eke a meager harvest from the soil.  They fought harsh weather and disease.  They were poorly equipped to make a success of a settlement in the new land —but they did it and they reverently gave thanks for Divine aid.
     In contrast, we have bountiful crops—an overabundance of food.  We have learned to minimize the effects of weather on our activities.  Amazing new means have been evolved for the control and cure of disease.  Technologically, we're tops.
     But let us remember the frailty of man, and the imperfect quality of his institutions.  Let us not get the idea that we have reached a peak from which we cannot topple, and that we have nothing in common with the Pilgrims, whose life was so primitive in comparison to ours.
     We can be thankful for every smidgen of good fortune that is ours.  We can rejoice in plentitude.                 
      But, unless we share with our fellow man, our expression of thanks is hollow. The day in given its truest meaning by those who have shown concern for the plight of others, and have done something about it.
     And as we celebrate around our festive tables on Thursday, let us give thought to those who would be our companions if they were not in Viet Nam, faced with daily hazard to life as they fight to make men free.
     The Pilgrims had their problems; we have ours—some the same, some new.
     Let us give thanks, and let us resolve to do our part to build a world where Thanksgiving is a universal holiday, observed by all men for all time.