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I celebrate Thanksgiving once in October and once in November, a Canadian and an American holiday. But they're both very Jewish.

Of course all the food is kosher, just like all the food in the rest of my year. This means soymilk instead of cow's milk in my sweet potato pie and corn chowder.

A Jewish Yom Hode'ah (Day of Thanks/Acknowledgment/Bowing) means that, while there's no brachah on it, I do light candles as a way of initiating the celebration and the meal, which takes place around nightfall instead of earlier in the day. There's a certain amount of ritual to the meal, not formalized, but nevertheless there are certain things I always serve (not the same recipe every year, just the same idea), certain things that always get said (not scripted, they just tend to happen). It's very much a seder -- meaning, an ordered, orderly observation.

And of course, there's the yearly acknowledgment of the thousands of Native Americans who were slaughtered and treated very harshly by the European American conquerers. Like breaking a glass at a wedding to recall the destruction of the Temple, I can't have a celebration of thanks without recalling those who have a lot more to be upset about than thankful for.

Hmm, well turkey day at my house is usual the usual Norman Rockwell on Thanksgiving image, but on Vicodin.

And by that I mean, there's usually a lot of stress and underlying tension within our house and we need to bury our emotions by lots and lots of booze.

I think I had maybe, a quarter pint of bourbon and half a bottle of white bordeaux.

Lets see...

I don't like my brother as a human being, I think he's a selfish, arrogant, a** and want as little to do with him as physically possible

My sister is a non-wiccan pagan who married another pagan and is home schooling her 3 kids because she doesn't trust public schools, which sits oh so well with my parents.

Everyone's rather picky about what they will and will not eat. 3 kosher folks, 2 diabetics, a failing liver, someone who's alergic to sulfites, another's alergic to fish, and one who won't eat anything unless it's deep fried and covered in bacon.

Yeah, I have lots to give thanks about.

To me, thanksgiving is an American Holiday where we enjoy our land of plenty by eating vast quantities of peasant foods and traditional faire in a supurfluious tribute to the harvest as we remember how the europeans showed up on the shores of America, and couldn't figure out how to grow food until the natives showed up and taught them everything they knew, and to thank them for their trouble. The European settlers did to the natives what the Germans did to Polish in the 30s.

Interesting fact. "Hodu" the verb meaning "to thank" is spelled heh-vav-dalet-heh, and comes from the root word hodeh, meaning "to thank, acknowledge." This in turn comes from the only two-letter Hebrew root word, dalet-ayin, meaning "to know," just as the English word acknowledge comes from the word know.

"Hodu" the turkey is spelled heh-dalet-vav. The Hebrew word for India is Hodi, heh-dalet-yud. The word "turkey" doesn't mean "bird of Thanksgiving," but rather, "Indian chicken."

I have this information from my Israeli co-worker, who frankly laughed when I suggested that possibly the bird's Hebrew name came from an American emigrant with a sense of humor. He studied linguistics extensively in school, so while I'm no scholar and can be wrong, I trust his knowledge far more than my own.

I like your version better, It's a great story.

Heh. It does have the benefit of accuracy, but I kind of prefer your version. More poetic.

No. The version wherein "hodu" the bird means "thanks" instead of "Indian chicken." Or did I get mixed up about who wrote that? Hm, it seems I did. Famusamu wrote that. Never mind, then. No, Neuf, your version of Thanksgiving doesn't sound all that pleasant. I'd be tempted to skip that entirely, or else go spend it among people who think and act with positivity and graciousness.