Celebrating Thanksgiving Day in your apartment
Like Halloween and Valentines day celebration, India is one among those countries celebrating Thanksgiving day.. This is a traditional celebration of USA, since 1863 and it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. The significance of the day is thanking God, for blessing us with food, wealth, health and continuous grace. As India is secular country, as well as multi religious, Indians started celebrating in India too. Goa celebrates it with great enthusiasm and they call the occasion as ‘Ladin’ or ‘Ladainha’. To go with the meaning, ‘Ladin ‘ means Virgin Mary and we are all thankful to her, for her enormous blessings.
When we talk about celebration, lets talk about how to celebrate it in your apartment. Here are few ideas which can help you to organize a party in your apartment on Thanksgiving Day.
The trend
This is the time of harvest of milk filled corn and the farmers offer it to God as thanking God for the blessing. To celebrate this occasion in your apartment, make sure you invite everyone from the apartment for the event.
Social cooking
Basically this occasion is based on food and feast. So it will be a great idea, if all can participate in cooking the dinner for the event. This is a social gathering as well as fun filled cookery event. Get permission from the president of the society for such arrangement. Make a proper menu and ingredients for that. As the thanksgiving buffet’s specialty is roasted turkey, make sure you have arranged for a big roasting oven.
Menu for the day
Thanksgiving festival is an awaited feast. You can have a lots of non-veg items as the main course, along with the traditional dishes like roasted turkey, pumpkin & crab soup, smoked chicken salad, shredded beef salad, soft polenta with spinach & Mushroom ragout, pumpkin pie, custard apple Parfait, etc. To make it more in Desi styles the add on of tadka in chicken or mutton can be a highlight for the event.
A cookery show
As it is all about food, cooking and celebration, you can arrange for a cooking competition in your apartment. You can divide the total mass into groups according to their age or gender. Give the basic ingredients as the turkey or pumpkin or apple, and you can have a full gallon of different dishes with different taste for the party. It will not only introduce new dishes but also turn out to be a food filled occasion.
Pot luck dinner
This is new concept for India which basically originated in England and a very exciting one. Pot luck dinner is basically where you get your own dishes and then gather together for the party, share each others dishes and have fun with the different items. This is a bit messy event, if not properly organized. Make sure you assign the food items to the members, which will bring in perfect variety of dishes without any confusion.
Progressive dinner
Another kind of feast you can arrange is the progressive dinner style. You can decide the menu, and then assign one item each for the members. Like divide the items of starter among first five members, main course among next five members and so on. This will really help in arranging dinner for a large number of people. As the work will be divided, the food will have great taste and lots of options.
Choose a theme
For the party, you can also decide on a theme which will add to the fun in the festival. Make sure you give a relevant theme for the event. Like for kids you can decide a theme of Mother Mary and also can organise a fancy dress competition for them. Even for the younger people, they can be asked to put a contemporary drama as a part of the cultural event.
Token of thanks
A bouquet of flowers, box of chocolates or scented candles will be very advisable gift for the event. You can also gift a bottle of wine. Make sure to carry gifts with you when your are invited for a thanksgiving feast. As this is an event where we thank everyone, for their love, support and care, this will be a good gesture of thanking them.
Everyone finds a reason for a social gathering and when we have such a food-filled event on our calendar, we should utilize it properly. Call you friends and family and celebrate the day with lots of food!
