I was surprised at the amount of attention that they paid to Thanksgiving here in Madrid. It's not like you see it in every store, the way they're already decorated for Christmas, but you did see it here and there and my Spanish language school made a big deal about it for some reason -- even though there are few American students here.
The school scheduled a party after the end of classes yesterday on Thanksgiving day. We were supposed to bring something, and I wanted to bring a pumpkin pie, but they don't seem to be available anywhere here. Next I was thinking of an apple pie, but I put off looking for it too long. I ended up bringing an apple pastry from a cafe near my apartment. It was popular at the party, even though it wasn't a pie.
Based on my experience at the school so far, I knew that there might be an opportunity for me to explain what Thanksgiving was from my perspective as an american. I prepared a hundred word explanation that included how the pilgrims in the Indians might have made nice at Thanksgiving but then the Indians were all slaughtered. fortunately or not, I didn't end up being able to use that text, but at the beginning of the party yesterday the teacher pointed at me and said "Mark, you're from the U.S., very briefly explain Thanksgiving." I just said that it was the foundation story of America, and left out the part about the Indians.
(Here's a great
story from the Washington Post in 2021 that goes a long way toward telling the truth of the "first Thanksgiving" and the history of the Wampanoag tribe that helped the Pilgrims survive.)
But, like the U.S., Spain seems to use Thanksgiving day as the real kickoff for Christmas season. during the last couple weeks they have been putting up colorful decorations on the streets that light up at night. and last night at 7:30 p.m., they turned them all on at once, accompanied by fireworks, which I thought was a bit much, but everyone seemed to be in a festive mood.
