Pass the turkey with stuffing please. Could I get the mashed potatoes? Would you mind giving me the plate of cranberry sauce? After a pause, I look around the table once more. Could I get the Chow Fan with the Bok-Choy? Which one of these foods is not like the rest? Content with my choices, I sit back down as my family bustles around me. I eat my food silently, laughing through my teeth whenever they tell a funny story, whether it is in Cantonese, Mandarin, or English. This is my Thanksgiving, a blend of my Asian-American culture.
Thanksgiving's creation parallels my Thanksgiving. The first one was celebrated with the Pilgrims and the Native Americans when the first successful harvest in the New World occurred in 1621. Then, George Washington proclaimed it to be celebrated regularly since 1789. It was not made an official holiday until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln declared a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens." My family always celebrates this holiday together, more for the sake of seeing one another and hanging out with friends and family than for an actual purpose. Most of my family is not religious and this holiday isn't intended to be religious nonetheless. However, we do say our thanks by sharing this holiday with one another. We show our appreciation for one another by spending the day as a family. We do not celebrate it in a traditional American-style, we celebrate it in our fusion-like way.
For one, my family does a potluck every year. Each respective family brings food to the table to eat. Whether it be Chinese food or American-style turkey and stuffing, we all contribute in our own way. A combination of Eastern spices with Western classics accumulates on the Thanksgiving dinner table. We have dumplings and various Asian-styled meats, but we never forget to have the huge turkey carved in the middle with the cranberry sauce within easy reach. It's a familiar sight that makes me feel at home and happy with the autumn. Happy enough to even forgive the blistering cold. My favorite dish is the sweet potatoes that are put in a tray and loaded on top are marshmallows. My grandpa makes it deliciously every time.
The most important aspect of Thanksgiving in our family, however, is the interacting. For one mandated night, everybody puts down what they are doing and celebrates the holiday together. Even though I approximately have 1 cousin who does not go to college now, we still all manage to come back home and meet together for a Thanksgiving dinner. The communal sense of family and happiness always surrounds these dinners, no matter if we have Asian aspects or American aspects there. It is the company that I really give thanks for every year.
