La Grande Bouffe

Here we go again. It is Turkey Day!

On Thanksgiving Day, everybody in America, rich or poor, must chomp on roasted turkey.
It is served everywhere, in restaurants, in army barracks, in homeless shelters, in private homes.
It would be positively un-American not to eat turkey.

Thanksgiving is an American national holiday celebrated each year on the fourth Thursday of November.
It commemorates the harvest festival originally celebrated by the Pilgrims in 1621.
Even though it has its roots in religious traditions it is now mainly celebrated in a secular way.

It was Abraham Lincoln by the way who declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863.

To turkeys though, Thanksgiving is not a happy occasion.
It is known as Black Thursday! It is not a day of celebration but a day of mourning.
When talking about it, they like to paraphrase a fellow chicken that famously said:
“He may be Colonel Sanders to you, but he’s Adolph Eichmann to us!”

America being a nation of immigrants celebrates Thanksgiving in many different ways.
Due to different ethnicities, Americans spice up the traditional dinner with dishes that often originated in foreign countries.
I have no doubt that Mexican-American families incorporate native dishes into their menu. So do Scandinavians or Japanese.
Similarly Russian-Americans flavor the dinner with vodka, caviar and plenty of zakuski and pirozhki.

But no matter how you look at it, Thanksgiving is a day of excess. A belt-busting extravaganza where calories counting is piously ignored.
As the French would call it, it is a Grande Bouffe (a great stuffing day).
Many Americans (probably out of puritan guilt) renew their health club membership the next day.

Although an American holiday, Thanksgiving is now celebrated in many parts of the world.
In Canada, it is held on the second Monday in October.

In Germany they celebrate The Harvest Thanksgiving Festival, Erntedankfest, in early October.

In Japan, they observe Labor Thanksgiving Day (Kinrō Kansha no Hi). It is a national holiday Japan and it takes place annually on November 23.
This tradition was adopted during the American occupation after World War II but it also has roots in an ancient harvest ceremony (Niiname-sai ) celebrating hard work and production.

Little by little, Thanksgiving is also conquering Europe.

In Paris, in the Marais district, there is a grocery store called, what else, Thanksgiving, where homesick Americans can purchase all they need for their dining feast.

But turkey is not really my dish of choice.
If I had my way, I would put “pâté de campagne”, pheasant, truffles and Tarte Tatin on the menu.
The Pilgrims might have frowned on it, but the Indians (especially the Hurons, Delawares and Shawnees) would have understood.

Za vashe zdorovie, you all!

Alain