Thanksgiving – a time for football, gut-busting feasts, family gatherings and wild retail sales – is about as American a celebration as they come.
But the holiday’s themes can be universally appreciated, according to a group of international Beloit College students, who say although their respective countries don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, per se, they do have similar celebrations centered around good food and good friends.
Richea Smith, a sophomore engineering student from Nassau, the capital city from the Bahamas; Zhilong Ge, a junior economics major from Ningbo, China; and Ozgun Kilic, a biochemistry third-year from Izmir, Turkey, sat down with the Beloit Daily News to talk about how they perceive American Thanksgiving, how they give thanks at home and what they’re doing this holiday season.
Due to the nation’s close proximity to North America, those living in the Bahamas, according to Smith, have picked up some American Thanksgiving practices. Really, it’s more an excuse to eat than anything else, she explained.
But Christmas time is the marquee holiday there, Smith said. Absolutely all businesses are shut down, and relatives come together for meals featuring fried snapper, barracuda, chicken, macaroni and cheese, crab salad and desert cakes. Smith’s family members based stateside usually travel to the Bahamas for Christmas, she said.
As for this Thanksgiving, Smith will be traveling to Des Moines, while Ge and Kilic will gather with other international students at the home of a local host family.
