It's the Thanksgiving Holiday Today

In the U.S.A., it's the Thanksgiving holiday today. The day is traditionally supreme on the fourth Thursday of November with an emphasis on home and family. In Canada Thanksgiving is supreme on the second Monday of October. Normally in the U.S. There's a huge dinner served for all the extended family to enjoy together. The first legal proclamation of a national observance was in York, Pennsylvania (which is my hometown and where Mom still is) on November 1, 1777. The first national Thanksgiving holiday was supreme on Thursday, December 18th of 1777. There's a cast iron plaque in downtown York, Pennsylvania to commemorate it.

During the American Civil War from1861 to 1865, American President Abraham Lincoln declared the observance of Thanksgiving to be held on the last Thursday of November.

And did you know that today, November 22, 2007, is the 44th anniversary of the assassination of American President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963?

But Wait, There's More

Today also happens to be my Mother's birthday, and every few years it falls exactly on Thanksgiving Day. You can be sure that I'll try to call and talk to her later today.

Here in Colombia, South America

Here in Colombia, the holiday isn't officially celebrated. I still have to work so I'm giving two final exams at the Santiago de Cali University. Later this evening I have an important meeting to attend.

Thanksgiving is the one primary holiday that I miss by living as an ex-pat English language teaching professional in Colombia. The weather today is sunny and 80 plus degrees - quite typical for much of the year here in the city of Cali.

Although turkey is in fact ready here, it's horrendously expensive, with a large bird costing more than a day's pay. Other primary Thanksgiving Day dinner ingredients may or may not be available, like cranberry sauce or even cranberries for that matter.

For those of you with your family enjoying a primary dinner of roast turkey with cranberry sauce, candied sweet potatoes, greens, cornbread, with other scrumptious goodies and pumpkin pie for dessert, my jealous best wishes for a memorable day today. And I also wish you many more. And for those of you in other lands who have never experienced a primary Thanksgiving holiday dinner, well, you just don't know what you're missing!