E.Deniz Sudas

The Thanksgiving Traditionalists        By  Perri Klass, M.D.  NYTimes        Nov. 25, 2019    In the article "The Thanksgiving Traditionalists", Perri Klass shares experiences about their Thanksgiving customs. According to Klass, traditionalists , who are about 80s now, pursue their traditional values about Thanksgiving.  One of them is  singing the hymn "We Gather Together" to kick off Thanks giving dinner , which is a Dutch Calvinist hymn of thanks for victory in 1597 over Catholic Spain. Second is big family meeting on Thanksgiving Day. She says that she lived in Cambridge with grand child  and every year their family came up frok New York and New Jersey. Other important one is Thanksgiving dinner menu, which includes such as  mashed patatoes, pumpkin pie, and Turkey.

Halloween was so exciting for us because it was my daughter's first Halloween. We don't celebrate Halloween in Turkey, but nowadays, in Istanbul, my friends begin to celebrate Halloween. We learned everything about Halloween, owing to my daughter, Betul. Preparations had started one month before Halloween. Everything, every mall, every street reminded that Halloween was coming soon. Early October, my friends and I participated with our children Halloween event for children in Lake Forest. Betul caught to chance to design her pumpkin. We took a lot of photos with princesses, heroes, and harry potter:). At the mid of October, my daughter and I went to Tanaka Farms to pick up a pumpkin with her school. It was a beautiful day. The children were so excited. Eventually, Halloween came, Betul dressed up. She was a little Elsa. In the morning, she visited houses with her teacher on a school trip. She collected a lot of candies and small gifts. After 5 pm, we began to visit ne...