Turkey finally welcome in Romania!

American Thanksgiving Turkey, that is.

Thanksgiving is truly one of those genuinely American holiday’s that must be 1) celebrated no matter where you are and 2) must be shared with those around you. What is it though that makes Thanksgiving so much more successful than say, Flag Day, or Columbus Day? From a marketing perspective, a must have product feature for a good American holiday is an emphasis on FOOD. Since most Europeans think Americans are gluttons, my American friends and I in Romania decided not to let them down.

So on Saturday the weekend after the real Thanksgiving weekend in the US we hosted around twenty-five Romanians to my friend Brian’s place for a party that included a full on Thanksgiving meal that would have made Martha Stewart proud. This is no small feat in Romania, as some things, such as cranberries, cannot be found anywhere in the country. So literally, there were a few items that weren’t just American, but were really brought from America. Of course, the beverage selection was rounded out by a few Romanian additions, such as tuica (very strong alcohol distilled from fruits) and plenty of Ursus beer. (For some pics of the event, click here: http://www.okcomputer.org/gallery/Turkey-comes-to-Transylvania!)

No Thanksgiving would be complete without reflecting on the origins of the holiday, and I did my best to help our Romanian guests understand where it comes from. I diligently told them the whole story about how the Indians helped the first colonists in America learn to farm the new land, and that the feast was a celebration to give thanks for the successful harvest. I explained that the Indians had been invited so that the colonists could show their gratitude for the help they had received. After this I couldn’t help but notice a few “are we the Indians, then?” looks. At that point I decided it might be best not to tell them about how the some of the colonists got greedy and eventually went on to take away all of the Indian’s land and send them to live in special camps called reservations!