What the UK Thinks of Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving my friends!!!

It is strange indeed to be away from my family and friends this year but, surprisingly, I'm not actually a complete sniveling wreck like I had expected to be! Why? Three reasons:

1) I am too busy with school work and having awesome UK adventures to get too hung up on being away from home. I have class, a meeting, a voice lesson, and a choir rehearsal on the day that pretty much everyone in America has off. If I were just sitting around my room bored I'm sure this would be a completely different story. Already this morning I have attended a special lecture with a middle eastern musician who taught us all to improvise in modal music, it was actually really fascinating, and now I'm off to a voice lesson and choir rehearsal. What's that saying about busy hands being happy hands?
2) I have alternative plans with my fellow American-in-London, Sarah. Come Saturday we are going to take her kitchen by storm and hobble together a makeshift feast like every other American study abroad student in the world! We could go to one on London's fancier restaurants and spend £50 each on a glamorous, gourmet version of the traditional spread but I like our way much better! I'm calling it Two-Day-Late-British-Thanksgiving... Sarah doesn't know that yet. I have complete faith in our combined abilities to cook a meal (well, I have realistic confidence...) and I'm just hoping that somewhere, in the vastness of the interwebs, I can find streaming video of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I have, however, decided to hold off on watching Elf until I can quote the whole thing with my mom. I seriously can't wait!
3) Thanksgiving simply does not exist here in the UK. And why would it? Heck, a pretty big part of what those early pilgrims were thankful for was not being in England, right? Nope, here in London, as well as all of the other cities I've seen in the past few weeks, it is well into the Christmas season. The lights on Oxford street were on the day after Halloween. Without Thanksgiving there to act as a speed bump, the "holiday season" is just a big, scary snowball hurtling down a steep hill from Halloween to Christmas. In a weird way, the fact that Thanksgiving just isn't an issue here is really helpful, it would be pretty terrible to see all of the locals gearing up for feasts with their families and have to eat deli meat in your dorm.

Now, as I said, Thanksgiving is a very American thing. We Americans take the holiday for granted, we've been making hand turkeys and construction paper pilgrim hats since we were old enough to use scissors. As such we are fooled into thinking that Thanksgiving is common knowledge. Well guess what, to the rest of the world, especially the UK and Europe, Thanksgiving is a pretty baffling concept, the Brits don't even know how to wish someone a happy holiday. "Merry Thanksgiving!...?" Here are just a few of the hilarious Turkey Day misconceptions I've heard in the past few weeks:

-Thanksgiving is the ultimate American holiday and is more popular than Christmas
     A few weeks ago I was in Ireland (that post is still in the works, sorry) and my friends and I went out to a bar to see some Irish music. It was crowded and the only places there were to sit were at the bar itself. Long story short, we all ended up getting chatted up by Irishmen (don't worry, Mike). The guy I was talking with was a nice guy who was clearly just trying to make small talk and at some point our conversation turned to holidays. He pointed out that Americans are known to celebrate even the most minor holidays (which, sadly, includes Halloween in their book) whereas, in these parts, Christmas is really the only major holiday. It took me a bit by surprise when he asked whether Christmas or Thanksgiving was a bigger deal in the states. I explained that Christmas is still basically the biggest, most commercial holiday but that Thanksgiving is a close second and that in some families it may be considered a bigger deal. He looked doubtful. That's when I realized that to Europeans and basically any non-Americans, Thanksgiving is a mysterious and glamorous, all out American extravaganza. Who knew?

-And the pilgrims were...?
     This morning I was asking the people at the front desk of my residence hall a few questions with Gill, another student from DU, and in between some how being signed up to organize some sort of holiday music extravaganza in the lobby, the subject of Thanksgiving came up once again. Gill and I decided to share some of the lovely holiday stickers that my mom sent me to give the front desk (and its staff) a touch of festivity. They played along, probably because they felt bad for us, but it was amusing to see two grown adults wearing Snoopy stickers on their shirts. The guy (whose name I have never known) went for the sticker that shows Snoopy and Woodstock sitting together wearing, what he called, "funny 17th century outfits." I pointed out that they were pilgrim hats. Blank stares, no response to this at all. It is becoming clear to me that most people outside of America, if they even realize Thanksgiving exists, have basically no idea what it's all about. I am beginning to find all this mystery a bit hilarious.

-So by celebrate you mean drink right?
     This one is probably my favorite. Yesterday, Gill and I came back from class and stopped at the desk for some reason or another. The lady working asked if we were going out later that night, implying going out to party. We were both a bit confused for a second until she then pointed out that it was the night before Thanksgiving. Then we were really confused. Apparently when the rest of the world hears that it's a big celebration they assume it's the kind of celebration that involves loud music and copious amounts of booze. Now I'm not saying that there isn't a good bit of wine and such passed around at Thanksgiving and certainly there are relatives all over the country who end their meal (maybe even begin it) in a less than sober state. But when she asked if we were hitting the bars in honor of Thanksgiving I just couldn't help but giggle. She was so earnest about it and all I could think of was her imagining our whole country going out to bars for ridiculous themed holiday drinks and some weird appropriation of turkey.

I guess the reason I find all of this so funny is because we take it all so much for granted that it is just amusing to take a step back from all of the givens and see what it must look like from the outside. At the same time though, it is really great to know that Thanksgiving is way better than the rest of the world apparently thinks it is. Sure, if any media does make it over here regarding the holiday, it's probably about the guy who set his house on fire deep frying his frozen turkey or the lady who ran down an elderly person with a shopping cart at 3:00 in the morning in the toaster aisle at Walmart, we aren't exactly giving them the best image of the holiday. But what we know, that they don't get to see, is that it really is the storybook holiday that it sounds like. People really do think about what they're thankful for and spend the day with their families making wonderful feasts. It truly is an awesome holiday! The rest of the world doesn't know what they're missing out on!

In keeping with the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are just a few of the things that I am thankful for today:
-The past 2 months and the next few weeks. My time in London thus far has been an amazing experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything, not even a whole truck load of cranberry sauce
-My super awesome parents who let me go on this trip and put up with my incessant messages when I'm in random crisis mode. They even pretend to miss me!     
-My fellow Americans in London for keeping me sane
-All of my wonderful friends at home who send me lovely messages and make me feel loved

Now go forth, my fellow Americans, and eat your turkies, watch your football, and fall asleep on your relatives' couches! And do it proudly! Because you are all part of the cool club who celebrates Thanksgiving!

Very Much Love To You All!!!

P.S. If you're going out for a wild Black Friday shopping spree, for God's sake, don't trample anyone or get trampled!

Remember, Remember the 5th of November...

...The gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.

As many of you are probably aware, this past Saturday was November 5th. For a lot of people it's a date you only sort of half-notice while writing it out on a page of notes or something and having it jog your memory back to V for Vendetta. The movie which isn't about the gunpowder plot per se but it sort of uses it as a backbone and sets the story to a dystopian future. Or maybe you didn't even realize that the fifth of November is actually minor holiday and you were just wondering what was up with the creepy masks cropping up as profile pictures on your newsfeed. Or is it just my friends who do things like that? The point is, Guy Fawkes day isn't too big of a deal in American because, quite frankly, it has nothing to do with us. But here in Britain it is a different story entirely, let me tell you about it!

*Disclaimer: my account of historical events in this blog are based upon what I half listened to my teacher say while we were standing in front of Parliament (What? It is a very loud, busy road!) and Google. It may not be completely accurate but hopefully it's at least entertaining.*

In 1605, a fellow called Guy Fawkes and 12 of his buddies decided to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Why? Well for the same reason any politically minded group tries to blow anything up, they felt that they were being treated unfairly and wanted to make a point, and hopefully murder the Monarch who was causing the problem at the same time. As they say - "Guy Fawkes was the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions." You see, they were Catholic and had been getting a lot of crap from Queen Elizabeth I's Protestant monarchy. When King James I took over he was supposed to fix it; but he didn't, in fact, he sort of made it worse. So there ya go, Guy Fawkes and his Catholic buddies were fed up and logically the only way to take care of the problem was to wait until King James I and all of his closest advisers were in the Houses of Parliament to conduct some official business and blow the sucker to bits. Problem solved. And no one exactly went out of their way to stop them. At first the group set up camp in a house that they had bought across the street with the plan to dig a tunnel over to the cellar of Parliament through which they could sneak in absurd amounts of primitive explosives. But then, lo and behold, a few months before the big day, a storage room basically right below the Lords Chamber went up for rent. Fawkes and the rest of the men knew the golden rule of real estate (location, location, location) so they snapped that cozy little studio up with out any suspicion whatsoever and managed to haul something like 39 barrels of gunpowder down there with out anyone batting an eye. Really it is amazing that this plan didn't work. I mean come on, they barely even had to try to be sneaky.

Here is a picture of said Houses of Parliment I took
during class earlier in the week.
 As you can see, it's still there

Here's the problem though. Apparently Guy just let any old, non-committal schmo onto his gunpowder slinging team because one of his men actually had a brother-in-law who would have been in Parliament when the planned attack was to take place. In what was probably the nicest thing anyone has ever done for their in-laws, this fellow got to feeling guilty and sent a cryptic little note on over to his extended family warning him not to go to work the next day. Either because he was a goody two shoes or he really just couldn't figure out what he was supposed to be getting out of a note that probably read like the work of a primary school kid who was new to riddle writing... and writing, the brother-in-law showed it to his Lords and Commons pals. They clearly got the message because on November 4th, they searched the houses of Parliament and found Fawkes hiding downstairs with the gunpowder. I don't know if any one knows why he was down there but it is my bet that he sucked at rock, paper, scissors and ended up with the job of lighting the powder. And thus their plan was foiled and all the members of the band were either arrested or ended up blowing themselves up while drying out their left over dynamite by the fire so they could try again later.

406 years later (and 5 days now, wow I'm slow at posting), there are Brits all over England celebrating this event as a minor holiday fondly dubbed Bonfire Night. It may seem a little odd to celebrate your government nearly being overthrown by terrorists in a violent uprising but I think there are two, equally valid, reasons this occasion is seen as worth remembering and the day has become a holiday. First, let's face it, London has been on fire a lot in it's long history, the whole city has basically burned to the ground at one time or another. But then, when someone tried to set it ablaze on purpose it held out! I'll drink to that fine display of fortitude, or lucky coincidence, and so will the rest of London's population! The other explanation is that 4 centuries ago, Guy Fawkes and the rest of the gang failed so epically that their story has gone down in history and they really just can't seem to live it down. You think it's fun to poke fun at someone for two weeks over one coffee spill to the crotch? Well this is like that, only the mistake was way bigger so everyone is still laughing at you.

And how exactly does one celebrate the near death experience of a historical landmark/government center (centre?) and subsequent capture, torture, and execution of the perpetrators? By having the local school children create replicas of them (the perps, not the buildings) to throw onto huge bonfires that are lit all over the city for people to stand and drink around while they wait to see fireworks which, I suppose, represent the explosions that didn't happen! Sure, it may sound a little bizarre and my teacher claims that it's all become just an excuse for a party but, hey, it's fun! Personally, I headed out to a park in Southwark with a friend who was in town for the weekend where we experienced a celebration not entirely unlike Independence Day back home. There was a really great fireworks show set to music that kicked off right at 7:00 (it gets dark at 5:00 here with daylight savings!) as promised. After counting down with the "worshipful mayor of Southwark", we stood in a large field and watched the impressive display from a distance that was so close it probably would have been deemed unsafe in The States. Unlike the 4th of July however, bonfire night is a chilly evening in November, people come out see the fireworks and leave, so there's no laying out on the grass and spending the the whole day in the park. On Bonfire Night you come, crane your neck all the way back for 15 minutes, and leave. But it's fun! Especially when you're an American college student who realizes, "Hey, I'm in London, England celebrating with the locals on Bonfire Night. How cool is this?"

This is just a fraction of the huge crowd out for the event in Southwark

Each explosion is essentially a tongue stuck out
at poor old Guy.

We had a very long day traversing all over the space-time anomaly
that is London but we were still stoked to see fireworks!

And that, in a structurally unsound nut shell, is the story of Bonfire Night. Hope you enjoyed!

Also, just as a heads up, I've got some traveling coming up in the near future so keep a look out for new posts about even more exotic places... sort of.

Cheers!