Thanksgiving Is Celebrated In Many Places of the World

Happy Thanksgiving to our readers, advertisers, family, and friends. Thanksgiving is an annual American tradition that we are celebrating on every last Thursday of the month of November, and falls on November 28th this year of 2024! Thanksgiving Day is a Western holiday meant to celebrate the harvest of the year. Americans publicly acknowledge blessings in the past years and respond by giving thanks, with family and friends sharing memories over a bountiful feast of roast turkey, casseroles, and pies. Americans celebrated the first Thanksgiving as a harvest feast in the fall of 1621. It evolved through the years, and President Abraham Lincoln eventually declared it an American public holiday in 1863. Since then, the celebration happens every fourth Thursday of November. Did you know that other countries and cultures also observe Thanksgiving as a national holiday? In Canada, harvest celebrations fall on the second Monday of October. And in Germany, it happens every first Sunday of October. During the Chinese Moon Festival, all types of lanterns – and especially colorful, animal-shaped paper lanterns – decorate houses. Moon Festival altars are adorned with five dishes of round fruits, such as apples, peaches, pomegranates, grapes and small melons. The round shape symbolizes the moon, as well as family unity Do they celebrate Thanksgiving in the Philippines? As an American colony from 1898 to 1946, the Philippines celebrated Thanks giving on the same day as the United States. President Manuel Quezon even declared it an official local holiday in 1935. Commemoration paused during the Japanese occupation, although locals still celebrated secretly. The tradition returned during the administration of former President Marcos, who even moved the date to September 21. It ended after the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. Today, though Thanksgiving is no longer an official holiday in the Philippines, many Filipinos celebrate it as a cultural tradition. Some restaurants even create special menus featuring classic American dishes, like roast turkey with cranberry sauce, pecan pie, and stuffing.

Many Filipino celebrants of Thanksgiving love to prepare Filipino-Inspired Thanksgiving Day Menu, combining traditional American elements with Pinoy flavors and twists to feed the crowd. Some Pinoy favorites are roast chicken or lechon (to replace hard-to-find turkey in Manila), pandesal for turkey or chicken stuffing–a Filipino twist, fresh lumpia with ham – for a winner appetizer, crispy pancit platter – a party essential serving crispy noodles, and orange camote pie ala mode, the mainstay and truly indulgent dessert of any Thanksgiving celebration.

Savor the palatable and the blessings that come your way this Thanksgiving Day! ###

-By Anonymous Editorialist