Who could argue against the fact that the joy we experience during any holiday is that we see in our children as they look forward to family get-togethers, tasty meals, and desserts.
Kids – more often than us adults – pick up on whether a holiday is ‘meaningful’ or whether it’s more ‘commercial.’ It’s up to us adults to help them appreciate the wisdom and significance found in all official holidays.
Kids who love Greek mythology might also be very interested in learning that their ancestors also celebrated their own version of Thanksgiving called ‘Thesmophoria’ thousands of years ago.
Thesmophoria was an ancient Greek religious festival in honor of the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone, to celebrate and promote human and agricultural fertility. Similar to the US and Canada, in ancient Athens, the festival took part during the autumn month of Pyanepsion (October/November).
A fun activity could be for children to imagine and draw what Thesmophoria might have looked like. What did they wear? What food did they eat? And here’s a tip to give your kids: The Thesmophoria was a secret celebration only women could take part in and we don’t really know much about it! Maybe they can use their imagination to draw what it might have looked like and create some cartoon dialog bubbles with Greek words they’ve learned from their Learning Path?
Kids are also quick to pick up on all the cultural and culinary aspects that make each holiday different; they might be quite interested in the ‘Greekification’ of Thanksgiving through the substitution of turkey for lamb, cranberry sauce for tzatziki, and apple pie for baklava and galaktoboureko.
Although the festival has not been observed since Christian times, Greeks have always maintained a tight connection with the land and its harvest. We pay homage to our ‘χωριό’ (horio) as often as we can, with an eye out for the crops and the bountiful nature.
It comes as no surprise then that Diaspora Greeks have embraced the holiday of Thanksgiving warmly; our minds are flooded with images of sharing meals outdoors with family members, close friends, and all others there sharing the moment. We cherish the fortune of taking in the wonderful scenery, the scents of Greece’s valleys and mountains, and feel of the Greek sun on our skin, reminding us we are truly home.
