My 3 Favorite Foreign Countries in Which to Celebrate Turkey Day

Thanksgiving, designated a national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, with its turkey and stuffing, football games, and nippy weather, is perhaps even more than the 4^th of July a quintessential American holiday, and one of my favorites. For the past forty-plus years, though, I've probably spent as much time outside the US as in, so one might be moved to ask what I do about my favorite holiday? Well, I've found that Thanksgiving can be a great holiday, whether or not you're actually in the United States, and in fact, many people in other countries find it as meaningful and fun as I do. Here are my three favorite non-US places to celebrate "Turkey Day."

South Korea: Despite the occasional outbreak of anti-American rhetoric from young people who have never experienced poverty in Korea, the presence of US military personnel in the country since the Korean War has created a unique Asian culture - one that is very Korean, with undertones of American popular culture. This includes enjoyment of all the accouterments that go along with Thanksgiving - well, except the football games, although they do watch them on TV sometimes. In addition, the Koreans have their own version of Thanksgiving, called Chu-sok, a fall holiday when they pay homage to their ancestors. The autumn weather in Korea is certainly nippy enough; colder by far than my native east Texas in fact, so Thanksgiving celebrated in a place like Seoul, Pusan, or Inchon is not all that different than it might be in Boston or Providence.

A really great Thanksgiving dinner, though, is if you happen to know someone stationed with US military forces in Korea and you can wangle an invitation to join them on one of the US bases for a traditional holiday meal.

Germany: I'm tempted to say West Germany, but with a unified Germany, I suppose I have to say the western part of Germany. Like Korea, since the end of World War II, Germany has been host to American military personnel, and Germans have picked up some of our cultural and culinary habits. Again, like Korea, you can have a totally traditional Thanksgiving meal if you have a friend who's in the US military and you can get yourself an invitation to the base - and at an on-base dining facility it will be significantly less expensive than it would be off base.

Some places, like Garmisch, have local restaurants that offer American food, but when in Rome, etc., and roast goose is a good substitute for turkey anyway. I've had some great Thanksgiving meals with my German friends at local restaurants, while watching soccer on TV.

Sierra Leone: A former British colony in West Africa, this might not come immediately to your mind as a place where one would have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Well, when I lived in Freetown, the war and economic decline did make it difficult, but it's amazing how diversity can stimulate initiative. We used to have the greatest Thanksgiving seafood dinners at Atlantic Ocean beachside restaurants, and on occasion when one of the oil companies would have some extra turkeys in the dry ice containers from which they resupplied their rigs, we'd even have turkey. Turkey with groundnut (peanut) stew is actually a pretty good substitute for turkey and mashed potatoes, and although the weather was never nippy - quite hot most of the time, actually - the friendship of the people around you made it feel just like Thanksgiving back home.

I've celebrated Thanksgiving in nine countries, and I don't remember one that I didn't enjoy, but the three I've just mentioned, perhaps because the people were just so darn friendly, which indicates to me that Thanksgiving is more about a feeling than a place, I guess.