Happy Thanksgiving!

[Tharthan]

I wanted to wish everyone from the Pale Moon community in the United States a happy Thanksgiving.

I hope that you are able (or were able) to have a great feast with your family, and are able (or were able) to ponder the things that you are thankful for this year.

[Night Wing]

Thank you.

I had a very good day. Talked via voice phone to all of my extended family and friends today who called me. It made the day go by fast. Too fast in my opinion. Now looking forward to this upcoming Christmas.

[Pentium4User]

As I live in Germany, we don't celebrate it here. There is something called Erntedank, but it is not common to celebrate that.

Years ago I didn't know about the term, but I watched this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evAjbfp0MW0

A hope you don't have such family members.

[Tharthan]

As I live in Germany, we don't celebrate it here. There is something called Erntedank

You may be aware that there are some traditionally German communities in the United States, such as the Amish and (more generally) the "Pennsylvania Dutch" community.

I don't know what word they—that is to say, the Pennsylvania Dutch—use for Thanksgiving, but when I speak around Thanksgivingtide to a certain little old lady of German descent that I know (I can speak a little bit of really bad, ultrasimple German due to my studies of linguistics) I call it Dankesgebungtag.

She has noted to me that there is no word for the holiday in German (which makes perfect sense, although again I would be curious what those traditionally German-speaking communities in this country that I mentioned call it.) But she understands what I mean by "Dankesgebungtag."

However, I just looked it up right now, and apparently "Dankesgebungtag" would actually be wrong even as a literal translation, and it is "Danksagungtag" that would be correct if one were to use a German term.

[Pentium4User]

https://germanfoods.org/german-food-fac ... n-germany/

It is called Erntedank.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erntedankfest

Although, it is only celebrated by a small amount of people and in some churches.

[Tharthan]

It is called Erntedank.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erntedankfest

Although, it is only celebrated by a small amount of people and in some churches.

That is interesting.

I would say, in my experience here in the region of New England in the United States, I haven't met many people who consciously perceive our holiday of Thanksgiving to be a form of harvest festival.

I always associated harvest festivals with Europe, Asia, and certain aboriginal and indigenous cultures. Though, obviously, all traditional cultures celebrating the harvest would presumably have such a festival.

With that said, I have heard that certain towns and cities here in the U.S. do celebrate some sort of harvest festival. My burg doesn't, though, and I have never been to a harvest festival in my life (there are other festivals that exist where I live that I have attended, but never a harvest festival.)

But thinking on it, I think that it would be reasonable to argue that Thanksgiving is in a certain sense comparable to a harvest festival, and perhaps considered the general American equivalent.

However...

1. Thanksgiving is usually celebrated with family (quite commonly, both immediate and extended family members,) not out in the town square or at one's parish church or the like. It wouldn't surprise me if there exist anecdotes of some towns or cities having some sort of more general, public celebration of Thanksgiving, but that really isn't the way that it is celebrated in America. It is celebrated privately, with one's family.

The closest thing that I am familiar with to a public celebration of Thanksgiving is the tongue-in-cheek tradition of the president of the United States "pardoning" a turkey shortly before Thanksgiving (in other words, the turkey will survive and not be slaughtered and cooked as part of the Thanksgiving meal).

2. There are two elements to the American holiday of Thanksgiving. One, yes, is the expression of thankfulness to God for what one's family has been blessed with over the course of the year.

But there is also a second element, generally considered almost as important: the memory of the Native Americans (indigenous people) and the Pilgrims (English pilgrims who came to America because they were persecuted——the first real settlers of what would ultimately later come to be the United States) coming together on that day to express fellowship, thankfulness, and reflection. This memory is important, because it was really only through the aid of the Native Americans that the Pilgrims managed to survive here on American ground. The memory is also important to cherish, because later on the relationship between the Native Americans and the settlers would sour, beginning a long, sad, and troubled period of conflict with and oppression of the Native Americans.

...Anyway, thank you for telling me about Erntedank, Pentium4User. It's interesting to know that there is a vaguely similar celebration in Germany (even if it is rare these days.)

It made the day go by fast. Too fast in my opinion.

Thanksgiving went by too quickly for me, too. It felt much shorter than usual for some reason this year.

[athenian200]

Happy belated Thanksgiving, Tharthan!

I was a bit busy with family over the holidays and didn't really check in, but nice to see someone posted this thread.