Thanksgiving is a holiday when we all spend time with our family a take a moment to appreciate all the things we are thankful for.

One important factor that plays a role in Thanksgiving is food. Of course, Thanksgiving has its traditional foods like turkey, macaroni, mash potatoes, and ham, but the U.S has also introduced other foods to the Thursday holiday. America has been called the melting pot of the world, a huge mix of many cultures, and it reflects in the different dishes served at Thanksgiving. People have begun to celebrate the same meaning of thanksgiving, but have started to incorporate foods from their own cultures into the holiday.

“My family does eat a lot of traditional Thanksgiving foods, but we add our own culture by including soul food. We eat things like dirty rice, collard greens, and gumbo.”, says Hannah Glover.

Everyone’s Thanksgiving meal is unique and special and caters to their own culture.

“My family eats different types of food like Goi, which is sort of like pickled salad, it’s one of my favorites. And then we also have the basic Vietnamese dishes like eggrolls.”, Says Junior Grace Luu.

Seeing the integration of traditional foods in people’s culture into an American holiday defines the ideal of retaining culture and tradition and being free to show your heritage.

“On Thanksgiving, it is traditional for my Chinese family to eat our cultural foods. We usually eat sweet and sour pork, boiled spinach, and chicken stir fry with ginger.”, says Emily Ngo.

Thanksgiving is a holiday that celebrates the meeting of two cultures (Natives and Pilgrims) and exchanging words and food over the dinner table with an open mind.

“On Thanksgiving, I love when my mom makes Paneer which is an Indian dish, and my dad makes chicken.”, says Siya Mehta

Each Thanksgiving meal is unique. In a country built on the mix of culture and people of different backgrounds, people being able to celebrate Thanksgiving in their own way brings us together as a country.