I arrived in Ithaca (and de facto in North America) last February.
Discovering North American customs, traditions and way of life is a continuous source of delight for me, for I’ve always been interested in foreign cultures and languages (and especially native civilizations).
Thanksgiving is certainly one terribly appealing event here.
I pondered for a wee while about the significance of this tradition, and being generously enlightened by friends and through reading, I now realize how important and significant this event is, even for me, and why I should celebrate it too.
Rather than a traditional swimming-in-gravy-turkey dinner (sorry, no judgment here, I just found the idea of a big swimming bird funny), it is all about remembering cultural encounters (and by encounters I mean meetings, but also confrontations) and the foundation of a new nation and country through these encounters.
I also cannot help thinking about language in the context of Thanksgiving, being confronted on a daily basis with another language than my own - even as close to French as English is.
The first European settlers, who probably never had been in contact with a foreign language and culture before, and a fortiori with such a degree of strangeness as Native American nations, have encountered a rather unprecedented challenge for their time - and so did Native American nations on their end! Some explorers brought Hebrew-Chaldean translators, thinking this would be the strangest “lingo” they would find in the Americas….Just imagine their disappointment!
Indeed, very little would have been common between these two types of civilizations separated by a vast ocean, so communications probably consisted of extremely basic signs (yes, no, pointing fingers, grumbling, smiling) related to very basic human needs to be somehow understandable by both parties. One can surely picture all the misunderstandings that must have resulted from two alien languages at that time of History, and which inevitably resulted in all sorts of "cultural exchanges"!
Thus, Thanksgiving reminds me of my own experience, although at a much smaller and gentler scale. I remember the first time I arrived in Scotland, when after studying English at school for years, I was suddenly unable to understand, speak, think, act and express myself in the same way than in my own language.
How frustrating, enraging - and sometimes discouraging - that was! And I do remember using signs and drawings to help communicate, smiling a lot, and feeling a lot like a baby babbling around, ending up saying “yes” most of the time even though I did not understand....and indeed some people would show empathy, whereas others would find it difficult to take you seriously according to their own cultural standards. Such is human nature!
Therefore, in my opinion, cultural encounters are rather a matter of individuals, and their capacity to open to strangeness (and have a great deal of humor) than anything else.
For all of this, Thanksgiving is a fantastic North American celebration, but also a more universal one: the one of culture shocks and its celebration for all the good that can result of it.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Laetitia de Freslon
PS: And pardon my English!
