Thanksgiving, the American Tradition and its Traditions

While Thanksgiving is long over, it is still important to remember and recognize its importance.

Like many holidays, Thanksgiving has countless traditions that vary from family to family. It is truly an American holiday. Thanksgiving is defined differently for everyone, with traditions that align with their own identity. Some may simply use canned cranberry sauce, while others take hours of effort to make the very same traditional Thanksgiving side.

Some celebrate with family, others with friends, and often with a combination of the two. With the ever-changing landscape of the world we live in, the time, place, cuisine, and company of Thanksgiving vary from year to year.

Quite a number of families have traditions that revolve around the sports schedules of the children. The four-day break is an invitation for a multitude of athletic programs to schedule tournaments, championships, and other competitions. Some families celebrate Thanksgiving the weekend before, on the third Sunday of the month, rather than the fourth Thursday. Some families even eat their Thanksgiving dinner as lunch, and go back for round two that evening! 

It is a common occurrence to have two Thanksgiving dinners to accommodate family visiting from out of town or to have a friendsgiving. Over the years, some families have stopped celebrating this American-rooted tradition because of how little it means to their non-American roots.

Other times, stopping the turkey day celebration has less to do with heritage and more to do with financial issues. With rising food prices, it is becoming more and more difficult to create a feast for a family, an issue exacerbated by the size of the family. Others dropped, or never started the tradition, because it conflicts with their religion.

Thanksgiving is a very flexible tradition, and instead of quitting the celebration of thankfulness, the harvest, and coming together, many simply alter it to fit their needs. They eat different food, like a chicken curry alongside the turkey, or replace the turkey altogether with hotpot. The celebration of food is easily modified to fit all kinds of food, but that’s not the only flexible part of the holiday.

Although Thanksgiving is a family affair, family has a different meaning for different people. Over the years, more and more people have had Friendsgivings, in addition to or in replacement of a traditional one. Children of divorced parents may have one dinner at each of their parents’ houses, and people estranged from their families may celebrate alone or only with their spouse and children.

When family ties are strained, people might skip the dinner altogether or only stop by for a short visit. If family is spread across the globe, everyone meeting up is a near-impossible challenge. With Zoom and other video conferencing apps becoming more and more common, it’s now possible to include everyone, even if someone falls ill or lives on the other side of the world.

Despite all of the different ways Thanksgiving traditions can vary,  it’s important to remember that much of Thanksgiving revolves around food. For some, it is a must to serve pumpkin pie for dessert, but others may have to include their own traditional food, like lasagna, for relatives from varying cultures. Though traditions are a major part of holidays such as Thanksgiving, they are not everything. Like the concept of being an American, Thanksgiving is a holiday that can easily be adapted to fit many different cultures.