American Thanksgiving Explained To A Brit - Podcast 99

Image: Midtownguy2012

Thanksgiving is a traditional American holiday (It's celebrated in Canada too but a month earlier) that involves a lot of eating and a lot of giving thanks (It's mainly about the eating though). In this podcast episode, me, (a Brit) gets the whole thing explained because it's not a holiday in the UK though there is something called the 'Harvest festival' but me and my family never celebrated it, nor did anyone we knew.

Coming to my first Thanksgiving in 2008, I was bemused by the spread because it seemed like a Christmas dinner a month early and with no presents and no crackers. Erica tries to explain Thanksgiving to me but somewhere goes off into a story about an electrocution involving her little brother. That might have happened during the first Thanksgiving but the jury is still out!

How would you explain Thanksgiving to someone who doesn't celebrate it?