My earliest memory of Thanksgiving survives in the form of a hand turkey created in kindergarten by drawing an outline around my hand on a sheet of brown construction paper, then affixing bits of color to make it look pretty and happy. It looked nothing like the white heap of flesh we’d roast later that week.

At story time, I learned how pilgrims decked out in black, white and buckles came over on the Mayflower, landed near Plymouth Rock and feasted on turkey, pumpkin pie and other fixings with friendly Native-American Indians who offered corn and hospitality. It was a quaint little story I never questioned.

The fourth Thursday of November would come ’round, relatives invaded our home, we poked fun at dad falling asleep in his armchair watching football, and in the background of the hub-bub was perky commentary and Christmas music from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York. It was one of the only days of the year that the good silverware came out and I was allowed to use the dishwasher. When I started working, my employer was kind enough to provide me with a turkey at Thanksgiving and a ham at Christmas, which I turned into a feast for orphaned coworkers who couldn’t go home or I donated to a food drive.

But in the 10 years I’ve been abroad and my family now gone, Thanksgiving has been a period to travel. International airports in the USA are eerily quiet, the world outside America and Canada goes about its business, and price-wise it’s not high season, so it’s affordable and uncrowded. To me, that’s perfect.

Today is actually one of only two Thanksgivings I’ve spent in Greece. We’re having turkey roast (boo!), homemade stuffing, homemade pumpkin pie with squash I chose from the field and de-pulped myself (bleck), and turkey gravy and whole cranberry sauce we smuggled from America on our last trip. But before I stop work and disappear into the kitchen, let’s talk about the real Thanksgiving and end with what I’m thankful for.

History of American Thanksgiving

Modern day Thanksgiving is a combination of events and based loosely on what originally occurred in the 16th century.

Its origins lie in the simple act of celebrating annual harvest, which is common in nations worldwide. “Thanksgiving” therefore is not an actual day or event, but the act of giving thanks to God for blessings of the past, general well-being and bountiful crops.

* Note that Canadian Thanksgiving is different.

What happened in the 16th century?

There were two groups of English settlers that came to America and set up colonies. In December 1619, one group arrived at Berkeley Hundred (now Berkeley Plantation) in Virginia and had a charter that said their day of arrival would be observed annually as a “day of thanksgiving to almighty God.” There is no feast on record.

In 1620, the second and more widely known group of English settlers came on the Mayflower, which was originally destined for North Virgina (now New York) and instead landed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts due to treacherous seas. Arriving first in Provincetown (not Plymouth Rock) on November 17 without a land patent, settlers angered locals by stealing food, grave robbing and shooting at them, so they set sail and anchored in Plymouth Harbor on December 17. Named Plymouth Colony by Captain John Smith, it was founded by a group of separatists known as Pilgrims, who were fleeing religious persecution and seeking a place to worship as they pleased. They wore no buckles, which weren’t in fashion ’til later in the 17th century, and black and white only on Sunday.

Tisquantum, or Squanto, was a Native-American who — despite being kidnapped, enslaved in Europe then returned to the USA to find his tribe decimated by plague — helped broker a peace agreement between the Plymouth Colony and Chief Massasoit and taught settlers how to find fish and fertilize crops.

The first harvest festival in 1621 lasted three days and took place between September 21 and November 11, with the 51 surviving Pilgrims and 91 Native-Americans feasting on wild turkey, water fowl, fish and five deer. This is the meal that many attribute as the first “Thanksgiving,” upon which the modern Thanksgiving dinner is based, although there was no giving thanks and the feast wasn’t repeated.

In reality, the first “Thanksgiving” was a solemn occasion held in July 1623 that included a day of prayer to praise and thank God for the congregation’s good fortune that additional supplies and colonists would soon be arriving from England. There was no feast.

Thanksgiving became an annual custom after the American Revolution when New York first picked it up, then Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a day of thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. Finally, Franklin D. Roosevelt set the date as the fourth Thursday of November in 1939, which was approved in 1941.

What did they really eat?

According to food historian Kathleen Curtin, the feast likely included:

Seafood: Cod, eel, clams, lobster
Wild Fowl: Wild turkey, goose, duck, crane, swan, partridge, eagles
Meat: Venison, seal
Grain: Wheat flour, Indian corn
Vegetables: Pumpkin, peas, beans, onions, lettuce, radishes, carrots
Fruit: Plums, grapes
Nuts: Walnuts, Chestnuts, acorns
Herbs and Seasonings: Olive oil, liverwort, leeks, dried currants, parsnips

They had no eggs, milk or sugar to make pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce. Also, there is no evidence of an oven or the butchering of pigs that colonists brought from England, therefore no bread, stuffing or ham. Sweet potatoes were uncommon, and corn was only available in dried form since it wasn’t in season.

What I’m thankful for

A tradition around many Thanksgiving tables is for each person to say what they’re grateful for, in addition to saying grace. My friend Jeff has an after-meal tradition in which all family members sit around the table and apply avocado-clay masks; this started when his sister became a cosmetologist. Adding to the humor of seeing grandpa with green stuff on his face is the fact they drink wine, tell jokes and see who is last to crack off their mask from laughing.

So…

– I’m thankful for people like Jeff, who make me laugh so hard I cry.

– I’m thankful for enemies, who offer challenge and make me laugh in very different ways.

– I’m thankful to have my health, a somewhat predictable and boring thing to say, but no less true.

– I’m thankful to have been flat broke twice in my life, so I could see what really matters and the beauty and wealth in simplicity.

– I’m thankful to readers of this site that I earned from nothing, who continue to read, recommend, lurk or loathe me. (It hit 100,000 this week after 8 months online).

– I’m thankful for friends worldwide who have given me love, honesty and fidelity since birth, childhood, these past 10 years or past few months.

– I’m thankful to be in Greece since my credit cards would otherwise be burning if I were in America tomorrow for the day after Thanksgiving kickoff to Christmas sales. They call it “Black Friday,” though I don’t know why since most go into the red that day.

Gobble, gobble everyone!

Related posts

“Why is Veteran’s Day on November 11?“
“Why is American Labor Day in September?“

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Photos from: bridgeandtunnelclub.com, nativeamericans.com, deskpicture.com, simplyfair.co.uk

One of the busiest days of the year for Greek police is November 17, a historical day commemorated with protest marches in Thessaloniki and Athens, ending at the American Embassy in both cities.

It is a day to remember an uprising by Athens Polytechnic students against the military junta’s dictatorship, which ended in the early morning of November 17 when a tank plowed down the university’s steel gate to silence those barricaded inside.

It is a day to remember those left dead or injured by snipers in its bloody aftermath.

It is a day to remember how the impassioned efforts of a few can effect change for the greater good of a nation.

What followed

Indignant junta hardliner Dimitrios Ioannides staged a counter-coup just days after the uprising was quashed, deposed the president in power and reinstated military law. He followed this with another coup that overthrew the president of Cyprus and left the island vulnerable to attack by the Turkish army, which divided and has occupied it since 1974.

The regime would eventually fall, thus restoring democracy and Parliament with Constantine Karamanlis as prime minister.

Alleged role of the USA

Protest marches end at the American Embassy because it is a long-held belief that the USA instigated, embraced, conspired with and/or funded the military junta. Anti-Americanism is fueled as a result.

While Henry Kissinger admitted a geopolitical interest in keeping Andreas Papandreou from taking power and was conflicted over the Cyprus issue, the evidence presented in declassified documents from the Nixon presidency is circumstantial at best.

Certainly, the USA had political and military motive, but no intent or malice. America was trying to avert a coup, not facilitate one — at most, it is guilty of inaction and acquiescing instead of using its intelligence and resources to intervene.

Modern day

November 17 is a holiday for all universities and schools.

Athens Polytechnic is now National Metsovion Polytechnic, named after the city in which its benefactors hail, and closes on November 15 to commemorate the day students first occupied the university in 1973. Wreaths are laid on a monument dedicated to students killed during the Greek Resistance in 1941-1945.

Thousands of police and MAT (riot police) officers are dispatched to manage protest marches, which sometimes turn violent and have in the past seen anarchists take hostages and firebomb banks.

“The Polytechnic uprising, as all other significant historic events, was the result of a coincidence of circumstances. One thing led to another, culminating in three spectacular days in November 1973…

An entire population of 9 million, which wants to show that it stood up to those who deprived it of its freedom, is actually indebted to the youthful boldness of just a few…

The anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising has gone the way of all traditions. It has become a senseless litany of ambitions, a celebration that only has relevance to the past and not the present, much less the future. Unfortunately, the Polytechnic died many years ago. We simply carry its corpse around the streets of Athens every November. May it rest in peace.” — Kathimerini

Related posts

“The significance of Oxi Day“
“August 15 - Dormition of the Theotokos“

Sources

- “Were the eagle and the phoenix birds of a feather in the junta?” — Louis Klarevas
- “American Duplicity: How America created the junta“
- “The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House” — Seymour M. Hersh
- “Are the Greeks anti-American?” — Southeast Europe Project
- “Easy myths about November 1973” — Kathimerini
- “Arxizoyn oi ekdhlwseis gia to Polytexneio” — ANA-MPA
- “End of a political tradition” — Kathimerini

Photos from Milos Bicanski, Getty Images and Keystone/Getty Images

It was the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month when an armistice — or end of war — was reached between Allied forces and Germany in 1918, thus putting a halt to fighting on the western front during World War I, a war that tallied a worldwide total of 19.7 million casualties.

After World War II and another 72.6 million dead, President Dwight Eisenhower changed the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day to honor American veterans of all wars and the British Commonwealth of Nations changed it to Remembrance Day. In South Africa and Malta, it is known as Poppy Day.

Red poppies originate from “In Flanders Fields,” a poem by Canadian military physician John McCrae, illustrating their resilience to bloom in battlefields of Flanders, Belgium during WWI.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

On a day that has become more about retail sales in the U.S. and debates about the war in Iraq, let’s put aside our differences and turn attention back to the real reason and real people who served with pride and love of country. Many veterans in America also need help in the face of homelessness, unemployment and medical care.

Take pause, show gratitude, honor their sacrifice.

Related posts

“Thanksgiving: Pilgrims and pumpkins, Mayflower and myths“
“Why is American Labor Day in September?“
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Photo from brighterexpressions.com

Oxi Day on October 28 commemorates the anniversary when former military general and Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas said, “No” to an ultimatum made by Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini to allow Italian forces to occupy strategic locations in Greece or otherwise face war back in 1940.

The motivation behind Mussolini’s ultimatum was an attempt to impress his ally Adolf Hitler, by securing what was thought would be an easy victory and expanding his fascist regime. But when Italian Ambassador Emanuele Grazzi presented the demands at dawn after a party at the German embassy, it was clear that Greece was destined to enter WWII with Metaxas’ unwavering refusal.

Though there is no documented proof that Metaxas responded with a simple “no” or “oxi,” the word perfectly encapsulates the longer reply said to be either “You shall not pass” or the French phrase “Alors, c’est la guerre” (”Then it is war”). Residents were reportedly shouting ‘oxi’ as they ran through the streets to arm themselves and prepare for war. Less than 2 hours later, Italian troops stationed in Albania attacked the border.

Initial success by Italians was fiercely countered by Greeks, causing Mussolini to embarrass himself and call Hitler for help. Greek and British forces continued to fight and decimate German troops, which was considered to be the most powerful army in Europe, until Greece surrendered in Epirus to conclude the Greco-Italian War lasting six months. The extent of casualties caused Hitler to delay an attack on Russia, thus subjecting his troops to harsh winter conditions and contributing to the defeat of Germany.

For many, Oxi Day is more than an anniversary commemorated with parades of schoolchildren, military grandstanding and flag waving. It is a day to remember Hellenic values, passion and ‘filotimo,’ and the courageous words and deeds of ancestors who fought for this land with flesh and blood. May we one day honor this country by mirroring the virtues set forth for us in decades past and be worthy to inherit its rich legacy.

For related stories, see “Politics” or “History.”

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Photo from armyrecognition.com and Giorgos Konstantinidis of Eurokinissi

To students and parents, Labor Day means the end of summer and back to school. It’s one last chance to go crazy at the waterslide park before it closes for summer. For sports fans, it’s the pennant race in baseball and the beginning of the NCAA and NFL football season. For workers, it’s a halfway break between Independence Day and Thanksgiving; and for fashionistas, it’s a chance to shop at a discount and the unofficial cut-off for wearing white.

Labor Day is a holiday that Americans associate with parades and picnics to celebrate the bittersweet bye-bye to summer. But why is it celebrated in September when most of the world commemorates it on May Day?

Why May?

In most of the world, including Greece, International Workers’ Day is marked on May 1st with demonstrations, outdoor activities or both. Know why? I’ll give you a hint: It’s an American event.

May Day, commemorates the anniversary of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States (now the AFLCIO) and Canada (FOTLU) resolving that, “eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s labor from and after May 1, 1886.” This would become law and set a worldwide precedent.

But on the same day, a nationwide contingency of 400,000 workers went on strike. This would eventually lead to a series of events that include police killing six strikers, the Chicago Haymarket rally/riot to protest police violence, more casualties and a controversial trial delivering eight convictions and five hangings — nearly all of them were men of German descent.

A few days later on May 5, the Wisconsin National Guard fired on a crowd of protesters, killing seven in what is known as the Bay View Massacre.

Many use May to demonstrate and hold rallies to honor the strength, integrity and struggle of workers, past and present. But it is also a day of rest, an opportunity to welcome Spring and spend time with family.

Why September?

The majority of educational and state government resources say Peter McGuire of the New York Knights of Labor initiated the idea in 1882 to honor “national strength, prosperity and well-being”; he got the idea after observing a festival in Toronto commemorating a printer’s strike in 1872, but some sources conveniently skip over that. In 1884, a resolution was passed designating the first Monday of September as Labor Day; a parade followed with most carrying signs pertaining to an 8-hour workday. Twenty-eight states made it as a state holiday.

In 1894, President Grover Cleveland and the U.S. Congress unanimously made it a federal holiday. But why did he choose September instead of May Day?

In addition to the Chicago Haymarket riots and Bay View Massacre, President Cleveland declared that a strike by Pullman Railroad workers was a “federal crime” and sent 12,000 troops to break it up, during which two men were killed.

It was an election year, and he believed celebrating Labor Day on May Day might provide an excuse for further rioting and empower the socialist/anarchist movement, so he quickly adopted the Knights of Labor resolution commemorating Labor Day on the first Monday of September. He was not re-elected.

Even the land of the free and home of the brave is covering a violent and ugly past. Hot dog, anyone?

Related posts

“Why is Veterans Day on November 11?“
“Pilgrims and pumpkins, Mayflower and myths“

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Special thanks to “Grits” for his story idea

Illustration from the Boise, Idaho site