Thanksgiving in the USA is traditionally about expressing thanks for the good things/people in our lives, if any, eating (overeating) a turkey based feast with assorted traditional comfort foods, watching football games/parades, and tensions with relatives that you never see any other time.

I think most of that can be universalized.

It's nice to express thanks.

Who doesn't love a feast? 

Most people enjoy watching sporting events, or if not escaping to another room to escape such people.

Who doesn't have insufferable relatives? Perhaps you're an insufferable relative. 

 

So what are you thankful for this year, if anything?

 

 

 

 

Diet Solo the best drink ever

Chicken and chips

Avocado shakes

Coconut shakes

 

 

Another made up US holiday, and with turkey, turkey is for Xmas, it's the Harvest Festival..

9 minutes ago, brian69 said:

Another made up US holiday, and with turkey, turkey is for Xmas, it's the Harvest Festival..

Canada does it too. Different date.

What holiday isn't made up?!?

Including Christmas for Chrissakes!

Turkey Day was always my favorite holiday when I lived in the U.S. but not a big deal for me as an expat.

I do remember my first one abroad though, in Puerto Vallarta Mexico 

It's a great money spinner for restaurants even in Thailand. 

To get the stomach juices going.

Brit kids loving Thanksgiving foods.

 

 

Speaking of Thanksgiving things that are big letdowns.

Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts.

It's just a rock.

Skip it and head up the cape towards P-town.

Much more exciting.

54 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

So what are you thankful for this year, if anything?

Every waking morning. 

First cup of coffee each morning.

The wife.

The wife’s cooking.

Shorts and flip-flop weather, even though it’s been getting down to about ten to twelve degrees at night here.

I don't really like how Halloween has become a thing in Australia .. doesn't feel natural. Thanksgivings isn't a thing but the sales that go with it are 

2 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

I don't really like how Halloween has become a thing in Australia .. doesn't feel natural. Thanksgivings isn't a thing but the sales that go with it are 

Same as the UK..

8 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

I don't really like how Halloween has become a thing in Australia .. doesn't feel natural. Thanksgivings isn't a thing but the sales that go with it are 

All this Black Friday sales nonsense.

Average Aussie person has no idea what it's about. Pure marketing and sales.

Black Friday used to be any Friday the thirteenth.

Long, long ago in a galaxy far away when the earth was green, we were expected to take an item of foodstuff to school for Harvest Festival, the idea being that it would be distributed to "the needy".

 

My parents ran a confectioners / bakers / grocers shop so a significant amount of (I know now it was approaching time-expired) goodies were donated.

 

I saw a lot of cream cakes, bread, assorted nice stuff, being loaded into teacher's cars. Even then I suspected that "the needy" were going to get ...

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

So what are you thankful for this year, if anything?

 

Give thanks for being in Thailand, a great country.

 

Give thanks for your presidential leader, whoever it may be.

 

I am thankful for Jasmine Rice.

 

But, only PREMIUM Jasmine, please, because....

 

I am American.

 

Here in CM, I don't see to many turkeys to slaughter, wandering around in the bushes.

 

The last time I had a turkey was in the year 1978, November.

 

These days, everything comes out of a can, or is manufactured in some huge factory.

I am not thankful for that.

 

I really believe that I am better off just NOT having a Thanksgiving dinner.

Better to do without, rather than to be disappointed over Great Expectations gone awry.

 

Maybe I will, some day, have another Thanksgiving Dinner, when I return to America.

Not sure if I will actually live long enough to get back there.

 

Yet, it's something to think about, for the future.

 

 

2 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

Give thanks for your presidential leader,

 

Yes. but some are not so presidential, although I cannot think of any examples, right off hand.

 

Let's forget about politics, for one day.....CAN WE???

 

45 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Speaking of Thanksgiving things that are big letdowns.

Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts.

It's just a rock.

Skip it and head up the cape towards P-town.

Much more exciting.

I grew up a half mile from the Atlantic accross from the tip, P-town.

The rock is quit ammusing in size now. Born on Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving to All.

2 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

Chicken and chips

Avocado shakes

Coconut shakes

Do you go out of your way to say the dumbest things, or does it just come naturally for you?

 

As a fox I don't approve of this message. THANKYOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER. 

2 hours ago, brian69 said:

Another made up US holiday, and with turkey, turkey is for Xmas, it's the Harvest Festival..

So what? Make up a holiday that people enjoy and brings families together. This is such a bad thing?

2 minutes ago, NorthernRyland said:

So what? Make up a holiday that people enjoy and brings families together. This is such a bad thing?

We're all just improvising on a wet rock hurtling through space, pretending the rules matter because if we all stop pretending at once, the whole thing collapses.
It's absolutely mental.
But here we are, getting genuinely upset about made-up rules in made-up countries, speaking made-up languages, defending made-up beliefs, working made-up jobs for made-up money.
Keep calm and carry on pretending, I suppose and I just made that up. 

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

To get the stomach juices going.

Brit kids loving Thanksgiving foods.

 

 

Somewhere along the way people forgot the US was founded by the British and formed the majority of country for years. The declaration of independence even includes "Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren".

 

If you watch old movies or TV you can even hear a very noticeable British accent spoken by the Americans. New England and New York etc.... come to mind.

 

Thanksgiving food might as well be British in my opinion because it was made by the same people separated by not even so many years.

1 minute ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

We're all just improvising on a wet rock hurtling through space, pretending the rules matter because if we all stop pretending at once, the whole thing collapses.
It's absolutely mental.
But here we are, getting genuinely upset about made-up rules in made-up countries, speaking made-up languages, defending made-up beliefs, working made-up jobs for made-up money.
Keep calm and carry on pretending, I suppose and I just made that up. 

 

I can't abide by this nihilistic thinking any more. It may be true but it leads to depression and sadness.

Trump

Marshmallows on sweet potatoes as a side dish to a roast turkey dinner? What on earth are you thinking? You can shove Thanksgiving up your ar$e. I'll wait for my Christmas roast dinner thanks. 

1 minute ago, NorthernRyland said:

 

I can't abide by this nihilistic thinking any more. It may be true but it leads to depression and sadness.

Not if you’re a Buddhist. The core of the Buddha’s teachings is to understand the true nature of existence particularly impermanence, suffering, and non-self and, through that insight, help reduce the suffering of all beings. Wisdom must be paired with compassion; without compassion, insight can easily slide into nihilism, which Buddhism explicitly rejects. In Buddhism, our actions (karma) express our agency and shape our path.

45 minutes ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

Not if you’re a Buddhist. The core of the Buddha’s teachings is to understand the true nature of existence particularly impermanence, suffering, and non-self and, through that insight, help reduce the suffering of all beings. Wisdom must be paired with compassion; without compassion, insight can easily slide into nihilism, which Buddhism explicitly rejects. In Buddhism, our actions (karma) express our agency and shape our path.

 

Thailand is supposed to be a buddhist country right so how does this apply to them? They love their holidays and wouldn't stand to be so dismissive of them. I think the greater wisdom here is to do BOTH things.

I don't support colonizer holidays.

Any excuse to gather family and friends together for a feast (of food, drink, and reminiscences) is ok by me.

Christmas, New Year, birthdays, weddings, christenings, even funerals.

Thanksgiving is not celebrated by my family but it does look like something we would enjoy, if we were American.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American members. Hoping you have a great day tomorrow.

16 minutes ago, blaze master said:

I don't support colonizer holidays.

I'll inform the colonizers.