May you have a happy Pasasalamat or a Happy Thanksgiving

May you all have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving (or Pasasalamat) or just a good Thursday if you celebrate neither.

In America, our holiday, which is tomorrow (it’s always a Thursday) is called Thanksgiving.

In the Philippines, I’m not sure if many celebrate a “Thanksgiving,” at least in the same way. I think there is “Pasasalamat,” which is a bit different since (I think) Pasasalamat is thanksgiving for the Lord’s blessings.

Here’s a bit of history to why American’s celebrate our “Thanksgiving:”

America belonged to Native Americans (what some called Indians) and white settlers, first came to America in November of 1621 in a ship named the Mayflower.

November, in America is cold….brrr… and it gets worse. As I write this, there is 20cm of snow outside.

Those first American settlers (there were 53) would likely have died of starvation. However, 90 Native Americans (Indians) brought them a feast and helped them survive the winter.

So, we celebrate that “feast,” even though most Americans no longer know who the Wampanoug people were. (Or are, since there are about 5,000 Wampanoug people living in America today). Back then, as today, there are millions of wild turkeys out “in the woods,” and so we tend to associate Thanksgiving with turkeys.

Here in America, on Thanksgiving many buy a turkey. I think turkey is called “pabo” in the Philppines and I know that they are raised there because I came across some on a small farm in Greenhills, south of Cebu City many years ago.

Oddly, though food prices have been high lately, in America, for some reason turkeys were cheap this year, as low as 90 pesos per kilogram and I wish I could send you all some. I’m cooking a chicken since I’m a bachelor and turkeys are huge.

I could, if I wanted go out into the woods and hunt a turkey. Here in my state of New Hampshire, there are hundreds of thousands of them, all wild. I’ll let them be though…

And so, may all of you have a happy Thanksgiving, or Pasasalamat, or just a good November 23rd.