American Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a holiday celebrated in the US on the fourth Thursday of every November. Many people travel on this holiday to spend time with family. Consequently, most employers also give Friday off, creating a four-day weekend.

It is a non-religious holiday designed for people to enjoy food and fun with family, showing thankfulness for what they have achieved and been blessed with in life.

When I first came to the US in 1977 I found this to be a peculiar holiday with many traditions such as the feast including roasted turkey and cranberry sauce — which were alien to me. Most restaurants are closed on Thanksgiving Thursday. As a student this was a challenge, with no home to enjoy a feast, and no restaurant to go to. Over time as I built friendships here, I started to get invited to Thanksgiving dinners.

Even then it took me a while to develop a taste for roast turkey and for cranberry sauce. Gradually my family started to develop our own modified American traditions, cooking slightly seasoned turkey and cranberry sauce, and augmenting the menu with a few ‘desi’ items. Over the last many years, Thanksgiving has become a wonderful holiday for my family. All my siblings, their spouses and children gather at the home of one of us, driving or flying across the country to be together.

As I reflect on the evolution of Thanksgiving celebration in my own family, I start to see how so many millions of immigrants before us have gradually assimilated into the American society, adopting existing traditions and enhancing them in their own way. The secular nature of this holiday has also made it easier for an American-Muslim family like ours to make this tradition our own. After all we all do have much to be thankful for, and a holiday that enables so many of our extended family to come together is something to be cherished.

While this holiday is universally celebrated across the country, in recent years it has also started to pose a challenge for many. Just as the country is so sharply divided in their politics and views about many cultural issues, so are many extended families. I have heard many of my American friends express concern about the arguments that are likely to break out during the course of the family dinner. There was always an uncle to worry about who held politically incorrect views and was aggressive in expressing them but now it is even worse.

Today many families are divided between those who support policies of President Trump, and those who think he is devil incarnate. While political differences have always existed, in recent years such differences in America are seen as a major character flaw by the opposing sides. This has led people to refrain from expressing political views in company of strangers. However, in a gathering of family members, this is harder to do — particularly as the feasting stretches over several hours.

Such differences are not unique to the US. I find even within my close friends in Pakistan it has become hard to have a civil political discussion. Such strong opinions have long existed in Pakistan over interpretation of religious doctrine but now everything from politics to religion to social policies has turned into a battleground.

What is driving this phenomenon is hard to say with certainty but clearly internet-driven instant communication, fabricated news and our ability to live within our own intellectual silos is a big part of it. How society will get out of this bind is hard to predict.

The writer is a freelancecontributor based inWashington DC.

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