Ah, the holidays. There are smells in the air.
The cracklin' of a pepper grinder releasing spicy laden notes, the savory delight of meat stock gravy caressing your nostrils, the heavenly aroma wafting out of the oven as some poor fat fuckin' bird gets roasted to a salivating perfection (take that you over-evolved dinosaurs!)...
No light-hearted fragrances here,
oh no,
it's magical.
This is the kitchen scene across the United States (and parts of Canada and LIBERIA, GO FIGURE) as we celebrate Thanksgiving, an annual appreciation of them good ol' days back in the 1620's when we had ourselves a fine harvest and we wanted to give mad props to God (here's lookin' at you big guy!)
Thanksgiving as a holiday is a rather curious one with many different countries celebrating some form of the holiday, albeit under different titles.
Present simply in the name itself "thanks-giving", the holiday has come to symbolize appreciation for what one has, a gathering of family and festivity, and a celebration of good cheer.
As we related to previously, many primary reasons for why Thanksgiving was/still is celebrated in some form is in order to give thanks for a bountiful Autumn harvest.
Plant in the spring, harvest in the fall, eat fat all winter, do that shit again next year, sounds good right?
Well Thanksgiving is more than just being grateful for seasoned poultry. In other parts of the world, a giving of Thanks can come in many different flavors.
Here are two alternate things people are thankful for around the world:
1. The government almost blowing up
It was 1605 when the O.G. of anarchy himself Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the English government on the now infamous 5th of November, and you could say things were set to pop off .
As a part of the Gunpowder Plot, Fawkes and his associates (led by Robert Catesby) had set 36 barrels of gunpowder under The House of Lords in Parliament. Authorities were led to discover the plot on the midnight of the 4th of November thanks to an anonymous letter (who's the f***kin' snitch?), and a majority of the plotters fled from London as they learned of the plan's failure.
The fleeing plotters made a stand against the pursuing Sheriff of Worcester and his men at Holbeche House and in the following battle, Catseby was one of the men shot and killed.
At trial on the 27th of January 1606, eight of the survivors including Fawkes were convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. They were executed on the 30th on what was described as a "cold" morning.
The British government decided to give thanks that they weren't turned into party streamers and thus a form of Thanksgiving in England was born, celebrated as Guy Fawkes Day.
In recent times however, the day's celebration has seemed to be surpassed by Halloween.
2. Having some fine, fine, brew
Ah, Beer.
The true nectar of the Gods to some, and by how much the world consumes it, it'd be hard to reason otherwise!
Excluding water, beer comes in as the third most consumed beverage in the world, right behind tea and coffee.
Made with fresh grain and hops, pure water, and finely tuned brewing techniques, beer has all the fascinating properties of an alchemical wizard's go-to drink ("I'll have your finest mead m'lord).
It's fizzy, it's bitter, it's sweet, it's sour.
IT'S BEER!
It's no surprise that a day of Thanksgiving is celebrated on account of beer.
Well, actually,
It's more like two weeks.
Leave it to the Germans to party-hardier than almost any other country when it comes to sloshin' back some brew.
Every year in late September-early October the Germans celebrate Erntedankfest, a popular German festival (volksfest) that coincides with the Autumn Harvest. The festival itself has many different components to it, one of which is recognized world-wide as the crème de la crème of cultural beer-fueled celebrations: Oktoberfest.
Oktoberfest is a two-week festival held each year in Munich, Germany celebrating the German culture, and their profound love of beer. The festival features traditional dress, food, drink, customs, and then some of Germany and it's enough to rock the lederhosen off of you!
As we said before, Germans know how to party (their festival has the word "dank" in it for f**ks sake) hosting over six and a half MILLION people annually for the fun filled event.
The Germans haven't been without their struggle in the past though, and they've reflected that struggle in their celebrations. Historically the dates of Oktoberfest were only 16 days long but in 1994, this schedule was modified as a response to the re-unification of Germany, and now people get tanked for an extra day or two to show some love.
Be sure to gnosh on some of the bratwurst, das gut ja.
