Happy (what the heck is?) Thanksgiving!

I’m just back from the airport, where I dropped my brother off. He’s flying to the very northern tip of Norway, the same place where he started his epic round-Europe windsurf – this was where he sailed alone, and unsupported, thousands of miles of Atlantic and Mediterranean coast, sleeping under the stars wherever he ended up, or relying on the kindness of strangers. This time around he’s going to look after cows for the arctic winter. As you do. It’s so far north the sun won’t rise over the horizon until the spring, but apparently the moonlight reflects off the snow to make it possible to see, at least some of the time. Plus every now and then things get lit up with the aurora borealis.

My own life is a little more mundane. In fact it’s felt so mundane recently that I’ve not written a newsletter for a very long time. For those of you who’ve missed hearing from me, I’m sorry about that. For those whom this was a blessed relief, well I’m sorry to disappoint you now!

These are such strange times that it is actually very hard to know what to write. This email goes out to people all around the world, but also across the (seemingly growing) political divides. And with the divide in the US deeper than ever following the election, it doesn’t feel my place to wade in. But then I heard it was Thanksgiving in America, and I realised it gave me an opportunity – to wish all those readers in the US a very happy Thanksgiving, no matter if you’re celebrating or raging at the election result. My only problem is I don’t really know what Thanksgiving actually is.

I do a bit. I’ve seen it countless times in US TV and movies, but we don’t have it here in the UK, so I expect I’m not alone in knowing the word, but not really getting it. At least, not in the immediate, familiar way we do with, say Christmas, or even Halloween (we didn’t have that here either when I was a kid, we had Bonfire Night instead, and it was awesome*). I think I also get confused by the turkeys. Not that they outsmart me, you understand, it’s just we have them here for Christmas, and turkey once a year is plenty fas far as I’m concerned.

Anyway. If you are in the United States, then I wish you all the best on the new chapter you’ve just turned as a country. And I wish you the happiest Thanksgiving you can possibly have given our weird covid year. And if anyone could explain what it’s all about, I’d be most grateful (is it just Christmas without the presents? But if so, how does that work given how close it is to the actual Christmas? Do all your relatives come together for Thanksgiving and then again for Christmas, four weeks later? Or do they stay the whole time? And if so, how does everyone not end up murdering each other?)

For those not in the US, I’ve taken the liability of borrowing the summary from Wikipedia’s page on Thanksgiving. I’m sure you’ll agree it handles the historical details admirably, but I don’t think it really gets under the skin of the thing. Anyway: “Thanksgiving is a federal holiday in the United States, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. It is sometimes called American Thanksgiving (outside the United States) to distinguish it from the Canadian holiday of the same name. It originated as a harvest festival, and the centerpiece of Thanksgiving celebrations remains Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner traditionally consists of foods and dishes indigenous to the Americas, namely turkey (twice in four weeks? Why? Why would you??), potatoes (usually mashed), stuffing, squash, corn (maize), green beans, cranberries (typically in sauce form), and pumpkin pie.”