Ghosts of Thanksgiving Past: Penang, Malaysia
October 8, 2012 in Asia, Malaysia, Travelogue
Thanksgiving in Guatemala- 2010
Thanksgiving is a distinctly North American holiday.
I remember trying to explain it once to an Irish girl who’d come to celebrate the day with us and it boiled down to her quizzical reply, “So, wait… you’re celebrating the arrival of the Europeans in North America, which eventually lead to the mass extinction of the native populations from war and disease?”
Well… yes… and… no.
There are festivals of harvest and thanks across many cultures at the end of the cultivation season. Americans and Canadians have just codified it. The folklore surrounding the holiday centers around the feast that the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims of Plimoth celebrated in which there were gestures of friendship and goodwill exchanged… but also shows of strength on both sides, if the truth be told, through contests and games with arms and numbers of warriors present.
As with most celebrations there is a cloudy blend of myth and history that distills out into something very different hundreds of years later.
For us, Thanksgiving is less of a putting on the pedestal of some mythical ideal in American history and more of a time to remember what we have that we are thankful for.
Family is always at the top of that list, both blood and chosen.
Also:
- Health
- Prosperity
- Freedom
- A roof over head
- Friends… we have so very many we could never name each of you, but you know who you are…
- Our children
- The ability to travel and adventure together
- Relative peace in our corner of the world
We’ve celebrated a lot of different Thanksgivings:
- With family in Canada
- With family in the USA
- Canadian Thanksgiving in the USA with chosen family
- American Thanksgiving in Canada with chosen family
- In Africa with American missionaries and pomegranate seeds instead of cranberries
- In Guatemala with American, Irish, Australian and Mayan friends without a turkey in sight
- An “authentic” 1600’s Thanksgiving with historical deference in food and costume with 40 kids in attendance
This year we’re celebrating with fried rice and noodle plates in Penang, Malaysia and 8 other full-time traveling families.
We had a Thanksgiving lunch in a Malaysian food court with another Canadian family. They are one week into their new life on the road and their kids are still suffering with Asian adjustment. They’re jet lagged (me too!) and the food is weird. We laughed together about the surreality of celebrating Thanksgiving here, and were glad for the company.
Instead of taking a walk in the fall leaves or lingering long over pumpkin pie around my parents table with Aunts and Cousins, as is happening right now on another continent, Hannah and I are staking out a McDonalds for the wi-fi to get some work in before we head to the pool.
This day will pass with little acknowledgement from our international friends, and no culture wide celebration at all in this country. But Thanksgiving is a holiday I will always keep in my heart. It’s a day for counting my blessings, for naming the things that make life worth living, for being truly, deeply thankful for the people that matter most in my world, for the cup overflowing of blessings, both tangible and intangible and for making it known to those people who matter most that the thing in life I’m most thankful for is them.
Will you mark the day with me in your heart?
Whether you are Canadian or not, will you take this day and be thankful with me? You might only have dragon fruit like I do this year, or perhaps you’ve got pomegranates like we had in Africa, whatever sort of bread you break at dinner or pie you might have on hand, go around the table with me tonight, whatever your time zone, and give thanks. Name your blessings. Celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with us, all over the world…
… and leave me a note here about what you’re most thankful for.
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I’m most thankful that, somehow, all my dreams have come true!
Thankful for, first and foremost, the gift of salvation. Jesus said, “If you’re not born-again, you’ll wish you weren’t born the first time.” (SLJM translation) Secondly, family. Starting with parents who weren’t afraid to clobber me when necessary, a sister who has stayed the course all these years; a wife, Janice Lee, who loved me and shared dreams with me and bore my two precious children: Anthony Lee and Michelle Lee, who in turn gave me six wonderful grandchildren: Benjamin, Hannah, Gabriel, Elisha, Ezra and Layla. A good country to live in. Good jobs and prosperity. Good church bodies. Lots of talent. And a few good pets along the way. I could go on and on, but these are the first most things I’m thanking the Lord for!
Grandpasgreat
Happy Canadian thanksgiving to you! We’ll be running errands today, picking up printing and an ear doctor appt. in noblesville. Thankful for so much, of course all of you and the opportunity you’ve had to see the world, for Michelle, Josh, Ben and Layla , for family in Wisconsin, for our relatively good health, for friends, neighbors, for our business, good employees. Most of all for our God who loves us beyond all measure and the assurance of life everlasting through JESUS!
Aww, so sorry we didn’t do more to celebrate it then. It was a fun night though!
Loved your blog Jenn even if late picking it up. What Thanksgiving experiences you have had. We will celebrate ours here in Florida with friends and no turkey since George doesn`t like it. By the way our daughter Leza lives in Noblesville, IN. We are most thankful for our families and them all knowing Jesus and know they will spend eternity in Heaven so can`t be more blessed!
Happy Thanksgiving Jenn. Thought of you today! We had a simple celebration with just our family and enjoyed a small feast. We’re thankful for too much to mention, but most of all good health, a roof over our head, 6 precious children, a thriving marriage, the blessings God has given my grandmother late in life, and GRACE. So thankful for grace. Hope you had a beautiful day.
Happy Thanksgiving, friend! Glad you are reunited with your family and lots of friends. One of my favorite Thanksgiving celebrations was the fall I was in Kathmandu and we cooked in our tiny makeshift kitchen, borrowed dishes from a restaurant, and had guests from several different countries who all sat on the floor with us to give thanks.