Georg Edelmann's Weblog Georg's Weblog

Being married to an American, I was indoctrinated into the ins and outs of Thanksgiving. This went on for years as we lived in England. Every year, we had our own little celebration, ate our little turkey after work, even had homemade pumkin pie one year. I honestly never understood what all the fuss was about. I just never got it.

In March this year, my wife and I moved to the USA. And 2005 was the year of me being exposed to the "real thing", that is Thanksgiving in the USA. How was it? Keep on reading and you'll find out.

The first glance of the seriousness of the Thanksgiving business came at the slaughter house. We raised our own turkeys, and it was up to me to have them "dressed" (confusing term as exactly the opposite happens during this action). So, I packed up our four turkeys into two spacious boxes and hauled them to the slaughter house (why not call it a "dressing room"?). There I met a lady who had 16 turkeys on the back of her trailer and another guy with around 30 birds. I got talking to the lady and she told me that all her animals are for the Thanksgiving feasts for friends and family. The other gentlemen had the turkeys slaughtered for sale. Within a period of half an hour, I saw approximately 50 turkeys heading for their final destination. This all happened a week before T-day. "Aha", I thought, "Thanksgiving is all about the feast. Fine with me."

The evening before T-day, we had my inlaws coming over and a couple from India who happen to be on a work assignment in the US. Everybody travelled over two hours to see us. Our turkey weighed in at 30 pounds, and with some swift calculations, we determined that the turkey needs to go into the oven by 9pm to be ready the next day.

On the big day, my wife and I were busy with farm work, so it was up to our inlaws to prepare the meal. The only wish I had was to have a most traditional Thanksgiving meal. And traditional it was. The obligatory turkey, mash potatoes, squash, parsnips, sweet potatoes, onions, string beans, rolls, cranberry sauce, gravy, followed by three pies - pumpkin, apple and minced meat pie. Then, we ate and ate and ate, took a little break, and then ate some more. We talked, had fun comparing our colorful international ways of celebrating Thanksgiving, and just get to know each other that much little more. I learned about the origins of the holiday, that allegedly Ben Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national symbol, the religious angle of Indian celebrations of Thanksgiving, that turkey is good for you in any quantities, that our parrot has no hesitations about eating distant relatives, left overs are a built-in feature, and eating too much really hurts.

A little bit more about left overs. In short, they are a wonderful thing. The day after T-day, we had exactly the same meal again. It was unbelievably tasty. The following day, our Indian friends made us a turkey curry. Delicious.

I guess an important aspect of Thanksgiving is food. I got the drift.

But that's only one lesser important angle. What struck me is the willingness of everybody to take time out for family and friends, for the people you care about. In today's world where families are spread all over the place, having time together is precious, very precious. Having turkey doing so, is the true trimming.