The American Thanksgiving

So there’s a lot to unpack and understand about the truths and myths of the American Thanksgiving tradition. One thing’s for sure, there is a lot of food…

I still do not fully understand Thanksgiving after almost a decade living in New York. We are believed to think it is the one day of giving thanks and wishing it upon everyone we know and that it was the “happy feast” when pilgrim settlers arrived. It is now defined by enjoying sports, being gluttonous and spending it with family and friends, and being enveloped by consumerism and sales. Honestly, there’s no issue with watching sports and enjoying food, but it’s the sentiment of the day that has really been missing its point for centuries.

We always keep ours small and just to ourselves, treating it more like a bigger Sunday roast type day than anything else. This year we didn’t set the table fancy. Cooking the whole spread is taxing. I mainly do everything (yes, I’m patting myself on the back here), so by the end of it when I need to snap the blog pics and ingest my food I have no appetite or adrenaline left. I feel everyone who is in the same boat will agree. You’re spent once you take the seat at the table. It’s like sitting down with a sigh of relief. And to me, that’s perfect. I want everyone else to be eating and savoring every bite, anyways. That is why I take pleasure in cooking. It is far from sustenance for myself, but the sustenance and enjoyment for others.

Technically, and historically, speaking Thanksgiving is not exactly a celebration. I think the way it is perceived and been taught incorrectly over the decades is why it is thought to be a celebration and a moment to be expressively thankful one day of the year, but that isn’t exactly its truth. By not realizing the facts behind the “Indian and Pilgrim” narrative that Thanksgiving is founded upon since 400 years ago is an erasure of history and limits the balance of narrative. I myself haven’t really spoken much about it amongst people I know, because I feel I’m still learning how to give thanks when to me it is a daily ritual mentally (and physically). In many Indigenous communities their daily practices and rituals of thanksgiving are built into their culture, which isn’t boiled down to one day of the year. Giving thanks, through prayer, ceremony, or song, is habitual in many of these communities. Thanksgiving should be an active space of self-determination, nation building and repatriation, plus more, as Matika Wilbur and Adrienne Keene of the All My Relations podcast highlight. Land acknowledgement for the Native peoples is empty without any action behind it, and the same goes for cuisine and culture that ties back to Indigenous communities. This is something that has resonated with me since listening to All My Relations (highly recommend by the way). It is a very educational platform hosted by two exceptional women, who discuss their relationships as Native peoples to food sovereignty, land, ancestors, and ultimately to each other. This podcast has paved the way for me to understanding American history and its relationship to food. Kurds are also indigenous, so there is an understanding and similarity between our histories and relations. The way our cuisine interrelates to shared lands and diasporas mirrors here to certain degrees.

The tradition of this holiday is celebrated with a wealth of food, American football and a lot of relatives under one roof (which could be good or bad!). I mean, I made cranberry sauce for the first time ever! I pulled a little from here and there and the rest based on taste and texture. In fact, there is no true evidence that the roast turkey was what was offered at the “happy feast” 400 years ago. There isn’t enough to confirm what the food was and what the narrative is, but it certainly isn’t how it is celebrated today. So why do we roast the turkey? I say we, but I mean you. I don’t actually roast turkey, we instead serve a roast chicken. Much more delicious and juicier! Chicken is quite simply one of the best meats to cook, in my opinion. You can do anything to it and it will pack in all the flavors. It’s robust, extremely versatile and though condemned as boring quite often, I think it is severely misjudged, yet over consumed! The turkey is not a bird we grew up with, and it certainly is not part of our cuisine in the Middle East, and I think it’s the latter part that allows me to merge my Eastern and Western upbringing in food.

2020 certainly has been the year of unpacking and peeling back the curtains wide and clear. This year felt no different with the approach to Thanksgiving. There were more realities spoken. I could feel it unravel on my social media and that is a good thing. There is no reason not to celebrate Thanksgiving, but as long we are celebrating it correctly and with full truth. I’ve never fully understood why the Thanksgiving meal features what it features and I guess that will need some more time. Take a deep breath before reading this next sentence, it’s a lot. There’s the roast turkey, mash potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beens casserole, broccoli cheddar casserole, assorted roasted vegetables, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, plus more and pie. Don’t ever forget the pie. Take another breath. Apple, pumpkin, sweet potato (yep, not a typo), pecan, cherry, peach, blueberry, maple, lemon meringue, key lime, the list goes on for pie options. It is actually the most extensive dessert list known to pie crust, don’t you agree? You could fill that crust with anything and still have a pie. It is extraordinary.

I don’t much care for pie, unless it’s my mum’s pecan pie. Now, that is quite simply to die for. One day this blog will feature that post, and I shamefully skipped on pie this year, so you’re stuck with the alternative for us, which is apple crumble. I did this on purpose. I wanted to bring a little more of my British upbringing through, merged with a little Middle East so that it was fully rounded. Pie dates back to 14th century England, so whether it was that or the crumble, it all originates from the same place. I thought by breaking in my own traditions, or just to do things differently, because why not, would symbolize how you can certainly cook Thanksgiving your own way, and still be giving no matter what the feast is. I even switched up the dinner rolls to include za’atar, because who says they need to remain plain. I don’t think you need to stick to the necessary dishes called for. Sure, there is tradition. I’m big on traditional cuisine or what you grew up with, I’m Kurdish, and indigenous, and this blog was to bring attention to the Middle East and our shared cuisines, but most of all to put our food at the culinary table alongside everybody else’s. However, there is tradition and then there is mythical tradition. Thanksgiving in my eyes is a mythical tradition, one that is too deep rooted to be cancelled, so it’s left to us to alter the discourse. The First Thanksgiving in 1621 isn’t factual, in fact what we know is invented and the happy story was created to fill the gap and allow settlers to feel comfortable occupying space. How you want to reflect your giving and acknowledgment is crucial to the sentiment and delivery of this celebration and perhaps where you come from, for instance like myself, a Kurd in America.

Today, the discourse is slowly beginning to change. Making space, reframing the day and being in good relations is what Thanksgiving should be about, if to be celebrated properly. The food can be what it is. I don’t think you need to suffer roasting a turkey if you don’t want to. I don’t think you need to make all the fixins if you don’t want to, but if there’s sentiment or joy in making some of these side dishes for the first time, like I find myself pondering over, then there can be great pleasure in realizing more about food sovereignty and the cultural roots of such plates. There’s no time to be quiet or hidden about what Thanksgiving truly means. If this meal is considered as important as it truly is, then we should be recognizing why we are making such dishes and why we are gathering around the table as family and friends and communities. An important step, in my opinion, is knowing the land you are on. I’ve recently found out I live in the Munsee-Lenape and Wappinger territories of Manhattan. An Indigenous-led Canadian organization called Native Land, founded in 2015 and incorporated in December 2018, is a website that redraws the map and geographical data. It lists territories, languages and treaties. I encourage you to find out which territory you live on. By doing these small acts to start, it is the beginning to building upon good relations with the Indigenous communities and broadening our education.

On a separate note, I don’t think I can argue much more on my lack of care for pie, it seems a very delicate topic to dispute and a national dessert at this point, so enjoy your pie. I’ll have my good ol’ crumble!