Happy Thanksgiving For Tomorrow, You Yanks!

I haven't quite decided whether to be jealous or not. It's Thanksgiving in the US tomorrow, and after experiencing 30 Thanksgiving dinners in my lifetime, I have to admit that the idea of sitting around the table with a turkey dinner and all the trimmings is mouthwatering. Then again, I'm supposed to be on a diet. ("Supposed" is the operative word there because I'm not sticking to it.) And to be honest, the last few Thanksgiving dinners I had before moving to England weren't traditional. My family ate one or two in restaurants. While it definitely cuts down on the stress and hard work, it's just not the same.

A friend in the US asked me why I don't try to import the idea of having Thanksgiving to the UK. It's an interesting idea, though thoroughly impractical. For one thing, I've been asked by many Brits what the point is of having Christmas dinner a month early (then having to do it all over again on the 25th of December) when you don't even get any presents! Good point. I try to explain that it's to give thanks for the fact that the Pilgrims survived a long hard winter thanks to their bountiful harvest. That works to a certain degree, until I'm asked "What is a Pilgrim?" Bit of a touchy subject since the Pilgrims fled religious persecution in England. That's when the idea of Thanksgiving in the United Kingdom gets a thumbs down.

On the other hand, Brits are fascinated by the idea of the Fourth of July. I've been to many pubs who have Independence Day celebrations. When asked why they're celebrating a war they lost, most don't realise that that's why Americans celebrate the 4th to begin with. When they do, they don't seem to care because most feel that King George III was a bit of a plonker anyway and deserved to lose the Colonies.

So to all you Yanks celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, have a good one! And don't worry. I'll make up for it when I celebrate Boxing Day.