Playtimes HK Magazine November 2017 Issue | Page 58

consider why people around the world
would celebrate the harvest time of year.
Subsequent activities and discussions
center on the idea of connecting people
through festivals and traditions.
As many Americans can tell you,
though they might not mention this in a
primary school classroom, Thanksgiving
is definitely a time of year when you
have to connect with family, whether
you want to or not. And no one tells this
story better than Hollywood, which has
created a whole genre of Thanksgiving-
set movies devoted to the contradictory
themes of: 1. family is hell 2. no one
should be alone on Thanksgiving. For
families with children and tweens, I’d
recommend supplementing a half-hour
of Peanuts with the feature film Planes,
Trains & Automobiles: a movie that’s
light on dysfunction and adult humour,
yet filled with the comedic gifts of John
Candy and Steve Martin.
For Hong Kong expats, however,
the opportunity to be with family
on Thanksgiving and subsequently
complain about said relatives is usually
a luxury they can’t afford. Too little time,
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too far to travel, too close to Christmas.
For most Americans living outside the
U.S., Thanksgiving is just another work
and school day.
Over the years, American Jennifer
Brown, a long-term expat, and her
family have celebrated Thanksgiving
in five different countries. She says
what she missed most was being with
extended family. “So that would be my
grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
And I missed the special feeling that
comes with a four-day weekend, a four-
day weekend when the only expectation
is cooking, eating and socialising. No
gifts! No fancy décor!”
Fortunately, Brown was able to
recreate that family reunion feeling by
returning each year to Zhuhai, from
Hong Kong, to celebrate Thanksgiving
with long-time friends. Having recently
moved back to the U.S., Brown says her
Zhuhai get-togethers will always inspire
fond memories. “We probably celebrated
Thanksgiving with our Zhuhai friends
seven or eight times. Four times when
we lived there and then three or four
times on visits from Hong Kong. That
turned in to its own special Thanksgiving
tradition that I will miss now that I’m here
in the U.S. My Italian-Argentinian friend’s
desserts were gorgeous!”
This year, Brown’s two children will
be able to experience an ‘authentic’
Thanksgiving with close, extended family.
However, according to Brown, they have
a lot of catching up to do regarding the
meaning of Thanksgiving. Upon my
request, she asked them: why do we
celebrate Thanksgiving? And the reply?
“They literally have no idea,” Brown
says. “They know it’s an American
holiday where people eat turkey (which
they dislike) and pie (which they like). They
know we usually celebrate it in Zhuhai.
Ask them about Mid-Autumn Festival or
Sinterklaas (Holland’s Saint Nicholas),
however, and they can explain a whole
long story about each.”
I have to credit yearly viewings of A
Charlie Brown Thanksgiving for the, albeit
sketchy, knowledge my two children –
half-American, born and brought up in
Hong Kong – have about Thanksgiving.
The Mayflower rings a bell, they say, and
there is always food. Lots and lots of food.