Thanksgiving in Britain
Filed again under "random notes from Britain," some things I find amusing about being an American in the UK this Thanksgiving holiday:
1. English muffins here are just called "muffins."
2. Bagels and (real) blueberry muffins are sold in supermarkets with a little American flag icon on the packaging.
3. Yesterday I went to a Thanksgiving lunch put on by some British people. To re-create a bit of American spirit, they had decorated the room with red, white, and blue balloons and little American flags in addition to the normal pumpkins and paper turkeys. It was funny (and weirdly inappropriate) to see such patriotic decor on a holiday that's in many ways uniquely American (though Canada has one too) and forms part of the American civil religion but isn't really "about" America the way, say, the 4th of July is.
posted by Andrew @ 1:11 PM
12 Comments:
Very interesting thoughts about liminality & Thanksgiving as the entry into the holiday season. Without Thanksgiving, Britain has no defined beginning of the holiday season, so the Christmas decorations go up in stores as early as October. People always say that the Christmas season seems to start earlier every year. Actually, the UK does have a holiday on November 5, Guy Fawkes Day, but it doesn't serve as an entry into the holiday season. Perhaps it's hard to be festive about the execution of a traitor who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament...
Red, white, and blue: what I find interesting is the way holidays and national identity interact. When I lived in the US, Thanksgiving never mentioned America - as I said in the post, it's not "about" America - and yet it's a kind of national affirmation of our shared culture. But since it's an implicit affirmation, there's no need for patriotic accoutrements - we have Independence Day for that. Which is why I thought yesterday's British take on Thanksgiving with its explicit display of American-ness - shorn of its natural context - was a bit of a misunderstanding, a strange misinterpretation of what Thanksgiving means to Americans (or at least, to this American).
Glad you like the blog, hope to hear from you in the future!
Happy Thanksgiving, Andrew! I lived in England for about three years, so I can relate. I found the "American Muffins" and chocolate chip cookies in stars-and-stripes packaging rather endearing. I never saw any English muffins, though - except at McDonald's.
-g
Thanks, graefix, and Happy Thanksgiving (belatedly) to you as well! I find the stars and stripes packaging endearing too. And I agree, I don't see the English muffins much either - the first time I noticed them might have been Marks & Spencer a few days ago.
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