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The Secret of Thanksgiving
Nov. 27th, 2003 10:56 amDateline: Thanksgiving, Queens, NY.
I've figured out what Thanksgiving is - it's the American equivalent of the Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner, with or without the accompanying family dramas.
The Reunion Dinner, for those who don't know these things, is held on Chinese New Year's eve. Basically, the extended family gets together and has a meal, and in Chinese families of the older generation, that can amount to about twenty people, if you include all the assorted cousins. My grandfather, for example, had seven children - five are married, each have a minimum of one kid... you do the math. With assorted spouses and so on, it can get pretty massive.
When my grandmother was still alive we used to have it at my grandparents' house. After she passed away, we basically migrated to this crap restaurant which for some unfathomable reason granddad liked, so we kept going there year after year until he passed away as well.
I always asked why we kept going to this restaurant. Dad's answer was that granddad liked it, but I always suspected that if I had actually asked granddad, his answer would be (loosely translated), "This place sucks. I thought you guys liked this restaurant!"
My father's side of the family has never really been close - Dad's siblings-wise, that is. There are a couple my Dad gets along with, there are a couple he doesn't. Which is why we usually only get together during the Reunion Dinner, despite the smallness of the country. My Dad's the oldest of his siblings, like I am, and married young, so the age difference between me and my cousins can get quite massive. I never really enjoyed the social aspect of Reunion Dinners because of all the kiddies underfoot. I was the one who was always asking, "Can we go now?" once I had consumed all the consumables I was going to.
I never noticed any family dramas when I was growing up. It was only in the Crap Restaurant years that any kind of family drama surfaced at the Reunion Dinners - generally to do with which of the uncles/aunts were going to pay for the crap food at the crap restaurant, or how would it be split given disparate economic circumstances. I don't think granddad ever noticed, though, but I did notice Dad grumbling to Mom about it every year.
So after granddad passed away, the only bright spot was that we didn't have to go back to the crap restaurant. For the past few years, the Reunion Dinner has been held separately, with no need for Dad and his siblings to get together. Which is fine by me, to be honest - I like some of my uncles and aunts, but I really hated the crap restaurant.
Wonder how Mom and Dad are going to deal with it next year, now with all three of us in the US.
I've figured out what Thanksgiving is - it's the American equivalent of the Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner, with or without the accompanying family dramas.
The Reunion Dinner, for those who don't know these things, is held on Chinese New Year's eve. Basically, the extended family gets together and has a meal, and in Chinese families of the older generation, that can amount to about twenty people, if you include all the assorted cousins. My grandfather, for example, had seven children - five are married, each have a minimum of one kid... you do the math. With assorted spouses and so on, it can get pretty massive.
When my grandmother was still alive we used to have it at my grandparents' house. After she passed away, we basically migrated to this crap restaurant which for some unfathomable reason granddad liked, so we kept going there year after year until he passed away as well.
I always asked why we kept going to this restaurant. Dad's answer was that granddad liked it, but I always suspected that if I had actually asked granddad, his answer would be (loosely translated), "This place sucks. I thought you guys liked this restaurant!"
My father's side of the family has never really been close - Dad's siblings-wise, that is. There are a couple my Dad gets along with, there are a couple he doesn't. Which is why we usually only get together during the Reunion Dinner, despite the smallness of the country. My Dad's the oldest of his siblings, like I am, and married young, so the age difference between me and my cousins can get quite massive. I never really enjoyed the social aspect of Reunion Dinners because of all the kiddies underfoot. I was the one who was always asking, "Can we go now?" once I had consumed all the consumables I was going to.
I never noticed any family dramas when I was growing up. It was only in the Crap Restaurant years that any kind of family drama surfaced at the Reunion Dinners - generally to do with which of the uncles/aunts were going to pay for the crap food at the crap restaurant, or how would it be split given disparate economic circumstances. I don't think granddad ever noticed, though, but I did notice Dad grumbling to Mom about it every year.
So after granddad passed away, the only bright spot was that we didn't have to go back to the crap restaurant. For the past few years, the Reunion Dinner has been held separately, with no need for Dad and his siblings to get together. Which is fine by me, to be honest - I like some of my uncles and aunts, but I really hated the crap restaurant.
Wonder how Mom and Dad are going to deal with it next year, now with all three of us in the US.
