Thanksgiving

Since it's that time I thought it would be pertinent to write about Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is probably the most observed American holiday. It falls on the 3rd Thursday of November. Almost everyone will be given the day off and it's non-religious, so pretty much everyone participates in it.

The origin of Thanksgiving goes back to colonial era, where the "pilgrims," a group of Protestants, left Europe due to religious persecution in the year 1621 and came over to America on the ship, Mayflower. Once there they landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts they became unable to raise enough food and began to starve. They were saved by the local Samoset and Squanto tribes of Native Americans who gave them food.

Modern Thanksgiving is usually a large gathering of relatives with a large feast. It's still very traditional in it's nature. Foods consist of turkey with gravy (the staple), mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, as well as many other "harvest" vegetables and for dessert there is pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce. Of course now there's a little more leniency, many foreign families will eat something more familiar to them, and for vegetarians there are a large number of meatless turkey substitutes (my sister likes one called "tofurkey", which I found to be absolutely disgusting). Thanksgiving is really about being with one's family though. Many people will have extremely large gatherings of extend family members, some with just there immediate family (I usually eat with my family as well as my Aunt, Uncle and 2 cousins, but this year it will just be my mom, dad and sister). College students usually go home for the occasion, but for people that cannot be with their family it's very common to eat with a friend's family. Besides gorging one's self with Turkey (leftovers result day after day of Turkey sandwiches until it's gone) there is a large televised parade in New York sponsored by Macy's department store, and often a few football games will be played that day.

Thanksgiving also holds another significance in that it is seen as the official beginning to the the holiday season. After this, people will start putting up Christmas decorations, like lights and trees. The day after Thanksgiving is called "Black Friday" and is in America the single most profitable shopping day of the entire year. It is called "Black Friday" because many companies will not make a profit the entire year (in the "red" of a profit line-graph) and since so many people do their holiday shopping on "Black Friday" these companies can completely make up for the entire year of losses (going into the "black" of a profit line-graph). As a result most stores have the best deals of the year, particularly on electronics. People will sometimes wait outside stores overnight just to get good deals on things they want. In many cases things are sold for less than retail and people will lineup to buy them only to sell them to other people. It can be pretty crazy (every year there are often a couple riots across the country) but it's pretty fun. I'd be interested to know if there is anything similar in Japan.