Happy Hanumurican Feast Day

Photo of the feast borrowed from Karen Chernoff-Smith
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The expat pack is a multicultural group.  As such, there is a lot of celebrating to do.  We all have our national holidays that we celebrate.  And in Bermuda, we share these with friends when we can.  As an expat, I still celebrate the holidays of home -- Easter, May Long/Victoria Day, Canada Day, Canadian Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, and recognize Remembrance Day (and the Grey Cup).  But now I also celebrate the holidays and special events in my friend's lives.  American Thanksgiving, Hanukkah (Festival of Lights in Jewish), the Superbowl, Diwali (Festival of Lights in India), Carnival, Cup Match, Fourth of July, Robbie Burns Night, and even Australia Day.  Today was a double header as American Thanksgiving and Hanukkah fell on the same day, which has not happened for 115 years -- the term that has been coined for the day is "Thanksgivukkah"...but I will stand by my creation of Hanumurican Feast Day.  I keep hearing my friend Dev's voice in my head saying "Amurican" rather than American...not because he lacks the ability to say it properly, but because he loves to rile the 'muricans whenever he can.  To be fair, he and a few of the Brits also like to ask when I am next visiting Canadia (prounounced like Canadian but without the 'n').


Thanksgivukkah was hosted in the dining room of a hospital accommodations property that was once a restaurant called Splendido's (where I had my first Christmas dinner on the island.  I was invited to brunch, and said yes, thinking I would have a salad before carrying on to my scheduled Christmas dinner.  What I did not know was that brunch in Bermuda is a 5 course meal.  It was therefore a 2 turkey dinner afternoon, a feat I would not attempt again).  The hosts were Craig and Erika (Craig representing the American or Thanks part of Thanksgivukkah, and Erika is from Peru but she is the resident turkey Chef) and Karen (representing the givukkah part of the holiday and preparing traditional Jewish Chanukkah favorites.  And yes I said Chanukkah, not Hanukkah, because that's how she spells it and I figure she would know better than I.  I was informed it's a silent C when I asked what the heck Chanukkah was and why have I been saying Hanukkah all this time).  Canada, Ireland, Philippines, Australia, England/UK, South Africa, and of course USA and Peru were all about to partake in the feast...as well as a few other places. Karen is an amazing cook and gracious hostess, Erika is equally wonderful in her turkey roasting skills and her famous side "mac 'n cheese baked with extra love."  What does extra love taste like?  Kinda cheesy actually.  It's a good thing.  And Craig is always the gentle and generous Thanksgiving Host.  I hope he is ready for Superbowl as well, we are running low on Americans at the hospital.

I was not the first to observe how wonderful it is to learn about and take part in the holidays of our friends from other lands.  It is truly a remarkable experience being an ex-pat...in addition to learning the culture and customs of Bermuda, we are fortunate enough to experience the cultures and customs of dozens of other places as well.

Thanksgivukkah preparations -- photo borrowed from Karen Chernoff-Smith's facebook page :)

And so Thanksgivukkah is done, for another 100 or so more years, but that just means next year there will be 2 different celebrations instead of one.  I am happy that my last one was such a delightful hybrid!