>>The past couple of days were a good example. It seemed that every
>>news, portal and magazine site I visited had prominent features about
>>Thanksgiving this-that-and-the-other thing... well, here's a late-breaking
>>news flash -- of the 200-odd countries on earth, Thanksgiving was
>>celebrated in exactly one of them this week, the US. So Thanksgiving-
>>related news was utterly irrelevant to anyone else on the Web.
Well, relax. Turkey Day is coming soon to a country near you.
Valentine's Day, which used to be "only in America," is going global. I know
it's in Germany, Denmark, and India. It's probably in many other countries
too. The marketing people for the florists, chocolate makers, and restaurant
associations are marketing it, to literally create a new tradition.
Halloween Night, which was only for kids twenty years ago, is being heavily
promoted across Europe. It's the second largest American holiday, in terms
of revenues, and European marketing people aren't stupid. There's gold in
them hills. Mother's Day and Father's Day are turning into global holidays,
again heavily promoted by marketing.
I did Turkey Day last week (yep, a week early). Nahuatl (that's Mexican to
you) turkey in Mole sauce (three kinds of chilies, Mexican chocolate, and
sherry), accompanied with Persian rice, Turkish rose water, five kinds of
French white wines, Chilean and Australian red wines, and Central American
sweets. Guests included French, Germans, Chinese, Japanese, and Indians.
Only a few were born in the USA.
For Thanksgiving Day, I was at a three-family dinner, nearly all were Indian
(the Hindu type.) It was a very traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, with
roasted Turkey, stuffing, etc.
Thanksgiving is a very American holiday, in fact, probably the
quintessential American holiday. Every other holiday can be held elsewhere:
nationalist holidays, religious days, famous people, etc., but not
Thanksgiving. Thirty years ago, it was a holiday for mainstream whites, but
it's changed. So many people have emigrated to the US in the last few
decades. They are very thankful for the opportunity to live in peace and be
prosperous. Nearly all of my friends here in Silicon Valley are immigrants
and they come from everywhere in the world. In their own countries, they
simply wouldn't have the opportunities for jobs, advancement, training, or
the spectacular salaries. Many are women: we can barely imagine how awful it
is for women in nearly all of Asia. Here, they become managers and get great
salaries. But still, Turkey Day is popular outside the USA.
I lived for seven years in Germany. I was a student at the university of
Heidelberg. Our dorm was made up of about 80% Germans, but there were also
Persians, Japanese, Africans, etc., from everywhere in the world.
Thanksgiving was very popular in my dorm. The students had often seen
Thanksgiving dinner in American movies, with the whole family around the
table and Mom bringing out the roast turkey. One couldn't get turkey in
Europe (it's an American bird). They'd often seen this in movies, and they
wanted it. I happen to be a rather good cook, so I made Thanksgiving Dinner;
I'd buy a turkey from the American soliders at the base; I'd make all of the
other things, incl. pecan pie and other things.
It was very popular, so popular in fact that we'd do Thanksgiving several
times every year in Germany. The date didn't mean much to them, and so what
if one does Thanksgiving in May and again a few months later? It's a great
dinner.
So I don't doubt that Thanksgiving will spread around the world. Who can say
no to a holiday based on food?
andreas
____________________________________________________________________
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Join The Web Consultants Association : Register on our web site Now
Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants
If you lose the instructions All subscription/unsubscribing can be done
directly from our website for all our lists.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
