Before we begin, I will formally announce that I do not speak for the entire Asian race. Growing up in an Asian household, Thanksgiving was never a holiday we celebrated. It makes sense. It's an American holiday with American culture based on American history. What does it have to do with my (Asian) family - nothing. Sure, one can argue that Thanksgiving represents the land that we live on, but that's a highly controversial argument.
Ever since I was younger, like many other American holidays, Thanksgiving really only served as a 'potential' day off - potential because my parents still choose to work. But there is a positive side to the holiday, though: Lots of food and an excuse for a PARTY.
Here's how it works. You roll up into the neighborhood of party host, and find the house with 20 cars parked on the sides of the street. You walk in and immediately you'll understand the house layout.
Here in the living room, you'll find a group of adults sitting on the carpet floor in a circle. Money is in front of them and obviously a deck of cards whether it's poker or blackjack. Welcome to the gambling ring. Full of loud smack talk, and it's common that this game will go on until morning.
Running around the house, you'll notice kids age 6-11. They're minding their own business and doing what kids do best. Upstairs, however are the 'older' kids, 14 and up to mid 20s. Either playing video games, youtube videos, or whatever they do - hopefully, not drinking.
The kitchen dining table we have the housewives. Asian culture is big on pride, such that each wife sitting there will be gloating and bragging about their own lives even only 50% is accurate the other 50% is exaggerated.
But then there's the actual kitchen stocked with food - and I don't mean turkey. Asians don't really do turkey. In fact, we don't really do anything American. We have everything from noodle dishes to fried rice to pastries wrapped in banana leaves and other transparent dishes filled with seafood and goodies. Best of all, egg rolls - you cannot forget the egg rolls. Everything is homemade of course, and food is NEVER finished. If it is then it's considered bad hosting. And if you're full, make sure to grab jelly desserts, called "desserts" (no, seriously). Drinks include water, beer (Heineken or Corona), and coke. That's about it.
You can't have an Asian party without karaoke. Thus, the second living room is just that. Except you can hear it from just about every single room in the house. And if you thought you've heard bad singing, then you haven't heard Asian parents sing Feliz Navidad.
To conclude, you can say Asians celebrate Thanksgiving, but not really. We don't sit around a table and actually eat like a traditional American family. No, none of that (weird) stuff. More than anything it's really just an excuse to get the family and friends together to party and sing until 6am in the morning. But I guess that's not the worst thing ever. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
