Thanksgiving for Everybody

Thanksgiving Day, for American people, is surely an important day and it is also for Canadian people, but, as an Italian, I can tell you the rest of the world has just one question: What really is Thanksgiving? In fact, in my part of the world Thanksgiving is always related with the image of a family sitting together with grandparents, aunts and uncles around a table eating a huge turkey and pumpkin pie. But is Thanksgiving really like this? Surely it is related to this common scene, but it is not just this. In fact, in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary Thanksgiving is defined as “a day appointed for giving thanks for divine goodness”. It is the day that you should be thankful to God for the food that you have received and for all the good fortune that you have. Brentwood celebrated, according to North-American culture and with its usual great respect to all traditions, both Canadian and American Thanksgiving. The Canadian one was celebrated on the second Monday of October, and the American one on the fourth Thursday of November. For both Thanksgiving days, there was a dinner with all the school sitting together around long tables, sharing good food, chatting, laughing and having a great time. But Thanksgiving is also, and especially, a really personal moment, and it can change from person to person. This is why the best way to understand it is through speaking with other people. In Mr. Patel’s opinion, “Thanksgiving is a time in a very busy world and life to stop and reflect on how fortunate we are. I am, and to go deeper on it, as human beings we need to find time to understand what we are thankful for and how we are thankful.” Thanksgiving is full of traditions. Many of these are the same for most families - to go back home to where you are from and eat the famous turkey. Others might change from house to house: how they cook the turkey, what they have for dinner, or going out to eat. But, after all, for everybody the central point of Thanksgiving is to share a good time with family and friends and to remember, with them, how lucky and thankful we are. Related to this is one of Mr. Patel favourite traditions “to go around the table during Thanksgiving and to ask the people whom you are sharing your food with what they are grateful for.” But for young people nowadays, American Thanksgiving is not just the day to be thankful. It is also related to the day before Black Friday - many people, in fact, see that day as a 20th century online market day, where most of the famous brands, companies and sites start to sell clothes, useless objects, furniture and even electrical items with great discount of 20%, 30% and even 50% off. What is its main rule? - Only the first few people manage to find good prices. All the other people just pray that a few good deals are remaining. So if during Thanksgiving Day you are thankful for what you have, during Black Friday you are thankful if you can get what you want.  Surely it is a symbol of a society that is still changing, and will continue to change. We hope that it is moving in the right direction. Ettore Z, Whitall ‘19