The tradition we know as Thanksgiving consists of a turkey, a family gathering, and trying our best to avoid political talk.
There are other ways people around the world celebrate the holiday.
In South India, the Tamil people celebrate a four-day festival called Pongal to thank the sun god, Mother Nature, and everyone and every animal that supports agriculture. This is observed usually on the 14th or the 15th of January.
In Barbados, there’s a 200-year-old tradition at the end of the sugarcane harvest festival, the Crop Over festival, where those who worked on sugarcane plantations celebrate the harvests. It’s typically celebrated at the end of July through early August.
In Japan, Kinro Kansha no Hi, or Labor Thanksgiving Day, honors workers and expresses gratitude for labor. It focuses on the importance of work in its society. This isn’t as big of a holiday as other cultures celebrate, but there are people who engage in activities surrounding it.
For more “unique celebrations,” I went down the Reddit rabbit hole, and found some fun ones.
One user said their family had a “Snoopy Thanksgiving,” in which the night before the holiday, for a late-night snack, they all serve everything they have in the TV special A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
What they served was toast, pan-fried popcorn, pretzel sticks, jelly beans, and ice cream sundaes.
Sign me up.
Someone wrote they have a Thanksgiving pizza where they serve the standard Thanksgiving food, plus a pizza.
This one might be my favorite. If you’re a New Girl fan, you’ll appreciate it.
Someone wrote they make a breakfast casserole every Thanksgiving morning with mimosas and coffee. Around 4 p.m., all of their friends in town come over for Friendsgiving and they’ll play “True American.” If you’ve never seen the show, it’s a game that has no rules.
But, the lovely person found a website that has the rules. Even though they don’t technically exist. I know, it doesn’t make any sense.
One entry said cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I stopped reading after that. I didn’t need anything else.
Macy’s Day Parade is a popular vote as well.
Another person said their husband makes Martha Stewart’s Thanksgiving pie for the last five years which is essentially a dish that takes all the leftover food into one dish.
Brilliant.
This is pretty accurate:
My family shows up and proceeds to get in my way in the kitchen while telling me everything they could tell me hours later instead of sleeping on the couch.
[Reddit]
