Thanksgiving in the Philippines? Fact!

Fully expecting an episode exclusively about how their families celebrate Thanksgiving in the US, Carmina and Patch accidentally learn that Thanksgiving in the Philippines was a thing! They briefly touch on the holiday’s origins, the intersection with the first Filipinos they spoke about in the last episode and discuss how and why it was once celebrated nationally in the Philippines. And their conversation wouldn’t be complete without food. They talk about the star of the holiday, the turkey, and a surprising discovery about its arrival in the Philippines. Lastly, they explore how Filipinos can make the typical American Thanksgiving menu their very own. Happy Thanksgiving!

 Learn more: Maimonides on the Mayflower, Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation, History of Thanksgiving Proclamations in the Philippines, A Philippine Thanksgiving, Why Thanksgiving Used to Be a Major Holiday in the Philippines, Filipino Thanksgiving Recipes, A Filipino-inspired menu for this Thanksgiving holiday, Celebrating Thanksgiving in the Philippines, and PH used to mark Nat’l Thanksgiving Day on Sept. 21.

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Transcript

Welcome to FilTrip, a podcast where we explore everything fun, weird, and in between about the Philippines.

Hi Patch.

Hi Carmina.

So Patch, by the time this episode comes out, it will be Thanksgiving here in the US.

Yes, that's right. And along with Thanksgiving, Native American Heritage Month is also the month of November.

Yeah. We have to raise awareness on that one, and we'll talk about why in a little bit. Before we go into it, I have a fun fact.

At our last episode, we talked about the very first Filipinos who arrived in America by way of the Manila Galleon in what is now known as Morro Bay, California. That was 33 years before the events that gave birth to Thanksgiving.”

I mean, it seems like a long time, but it's pretty much a young history.

But of course, I focused on the fact that the Filipinos were in America first.

Right, right. Oh, and also, I just wanted to point out, in a previous episode, we talked about, remember the Carlisle Indian Industrial School?

Oh, yeah.

We discovered that there were Filipinos taught at this American Indian school. And so there is this relationship we have with this population that I was never aware of. And this gives me kind of more, should I say, empathetic or sensitive optics about the Native American struggles and history.

Yeah. And we also talked about how those original Filipinos that landed in Morro Bay, some of them stayed. We don't know if they lived amongst the Native Americans who were in Morro Bay, California.

Right.

Okay, so let's just briefly touch on the origins of American Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims, who were a group of English separatists, left England for the Americas because of religious freedom. The separatists is a branch of Puritanism, who believed that the Church of England, which was the prevailing religion, was too similar to the Catholics.

And at that time, the Catholic faith was very, let's just say, associated with and practiced corruption and hierarchy. So the separatists, I mean, hence their name, wanted to separate themselves from that and create another church that was free from those quote unquote vices, so to speak. The first of this group who left England actually went to the Netherlands first, but they left there because they couldn't maintain their English identity.

So they planned to go to Virginia on the Mayflower, because that was already an English colony that was settled in 1607. But because of storms, they ended up in Plymouth, Massachusetts, which was not yet an English colony. Plymouth was originally inhabited by the Wampanoag people.

And in the beginning, there was mutual cooperation between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag. And that was what they celebrated at the first Thanksgiving in 1621. It was a three-day harvest feast to celebrate a successful harvest.

It was attended by 50 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag. And of course, we know how it eventually went down many years later, right? With the English eventually colonizing Massachusetts, too.

The story that is very common out there is, you know, is this the first time this tradition of Thanksgiving, but I found out the Wampanoag, similar to other nations, they do celebrate some kind of Thanksgiving, or they have been celebrating some kind of Thanksgiving even before this happened. And it's part of their tradition. Nowadays, they continue to celebrate Thanksgiving, and it may not have anything to do with that quote-unquote first Thanksgiving, but they just have this wonderful tradition of giving thanks.

Yeah, and this labeling of the first, of course, it has colonial associations, right?

Right.

So, it wasn't really celebrated consistently until 1863, during the Civil War, when Lincoln revived it to encourage unity during a really divided time in the country. Before that, there was even a lot of controversy about declaring it as an official day. Beginning from the time of George Washington, those in opposition felt it was too closely mimicking European traditions.

So, just to remind us, right, when George Washington became president, America had just gained their independence from Britain. So, it was logical that they would try to distance themselves a little bit from some of the European traditions. So, while it was celebrated, it wasn't really an official national holiday.

And Lincoln was the one who started the tradition of celebrating it every fourth Thursday of November. But in 1939, Franklin Delano Roosevelt temporarily moved it to the third Thursday of November. And can you guess why?

Why? Why are you laughing?

Because it was the Great Depression. So he wanted to extend the holiday shopping season, basically, to boost the economy because of the Great Depression. But it created so much confusion.

So some people were still celebrating it on the fourth Thursday. Others were celebrating it on the third, according to Roosevelt's proclamation. So after two years of that, he signed a bill into law in 1941 to officially designate the fourth Thursday as the official Thanksgiving holiday.

And Patch, another fun fact, the very first, as we are calling it, first Thanksgiving was neither on the third nor the fourth Thursday of November. It was actually held in late September or early October. According to the harvest season, you know, so the exact date is really unknown.

And we mentioned the prevailing sentiment of today. Today, people feel very mixed about Thanksgiving.

Right.

Many still view it as a time for gratitude and family, but others are conflicted because of the historical context and because of the mistreatment of indigenous people. Nowadays, there's a greater effort given to raising awareness about the impact to Native Americans and the impact of this event to them. So, for example, in some universities, like the University of Alaska Southeast, they don't call it Thanksgiving break anymore on their academic calendar, and instead they've replaced it with fall break because they felt it led some people to feel excluded.

And of course, if you're a descendant of Native Americans, you would feel a certain way about it, right? And so they wanted to decolonize its celebration. And so speaking of decolonization, I wondered, as a once US colony ourselves, whether it was ever celebrated in the Philippines.

And to my shock, it turns out it was.

Carmina, I wondered the same. I don't know why I didn't know this, but as an American colony from 1898 to 1946, the Philippines celebrated Thanksgiving on the same day as the United States. President Manuel Quezon even declared it an official local holiday in 1935.

The commemoration paused, however, during the Japanese occupation, when locals and American immigrants celebrated it secretly.

It was also revived by Sergio Osmena in 1944, when the US liberated the Philippines. And we apparently did celebrate it until 1973.

Yes, so the tradition continued during the administration of President Marcos.

But he introduced a twist, right?

Right, he moved the date to September 21. It ended after the 1986 EDSA People's Power Revolution.

So his moving it to September 21 is so significant, because he obviously, as part of his propaganda for declaring martial law, wanted to link it to that declaration of martial law.

Right, so it kind of gave this association of thanksgiving and celebration of oppression.

And so inevitably, after the EDSA Revolution in 1986, it was discontinued.

Right, I saw this picture online of the first celebration of thanksgiving on November 24, 1899 is the date. Amidst the Philippine-American War, the men of Company D, 30th Volunteer Infantry Regiment, they took a break, and they celebrated thanksgiving in Pasay, in Manila. And the scene, there's a group of these men, and they have this feast on a long bamboo table, and they were protected from the sun under this long canvas.

We're going to link that picture in our show notes. And the other thing that we're going to link in our show notes is an article that described how, from a government context, we would celebrate Thanksgiving. And it was through proclamations, right?

Because it really wasn't signed into law until FDR. So every year from 1901 to 1935, whenever the American presidents proclaimed thanksgiving, the American governors general in the Philippines would issue these proclamations. And then even when we became a Commonwealth in 1935, when Manuel L. “Quezon was the president of the Commonwealth, he issued these proclamations by taking the original from the US president and putting his own notes on it before he would distribute it to the country. And we're linking in our show notes on article with those proclamations in full text, with the notes of the president. So it was just a fascinating read, something that I think adds a little bit more color to how it was passed down basically to the Filipinos.

So, yeah, we were commenting on how we never really celebrated it or that we don't even remember, right? And maybe it had something to do with it being changed in meaning and context during the Marcos regime, because we're martial law babies, so that I never did. But I thought maybe my mom did.

Apparently, she does not remember it too.

Right.

So I wonder if it was just being celebrated in like a slice of Philippine society.

Probably. Even today, though, some Filipino families still celebrate Thanksgiving in the Philippines. And that's when you see menu changes in certain restaurants.

They offer Thanksgiving feasts.

And you know, the last time I went home to the Philippines, on my way to the province, I began seeing turkey farms.

Okay. I'm glad you mentioned that, Carmina. I did not realize that we had native turkeys in the Philippines.

Are you aware of this and the history of the turkey in the Philippines?

No, but it just to me was fascinating. Because we do have a lot of foreign expats now in the Philippines. Like, a lot.

And so, it would make sense that we would start catering to their tastes, right? So, I thought the proliferation of these turkey farms had something to do with this recent influx. I did not realize that they were always there.

Yeah, actually, I found some information about our native turkey. So, you know, as we know, the celebration of Thanksgiving in the Philippines is, you know, passed down through our colonial history. Apparently, the story of the turkey in the Philippines has its origins from the Spanish colonization.

Whoa! Yes. So, it begins in the 16th century when the Spanish colonizers brought the pavo, or the Spanish turkeys, aboard the ships from Mexico.

And these birds were descendants of the domesticated breed by the Aztecs. They were smaller, but they were hardy and resistant to disease. And so, they were brought over to the Philippines.

And when the American colonial period began, they also brought significant changes to this Philippine turkey population. They introduced their, they called them the broad-breasted bronze turkey, which were much larger, as we know, we see here in America. But they are quite weaker to the Philippine environment.

And so they were susceptible to disease. And nowadays, I guess, it's the pabo, or the Philippine turkey, is a crossbreed between all these breeds. And they have a niche market now, like you saw those farms.

So, it's very interesting how that breed is present now in the Philippines.

You know, you've sparked a memory of my grandmother, because, you know, my grandmother used to love making relleno manok, right? The stuffed chicken. And there was one time that I remember in my head, her saying, this is not chicken, it's pabo.

She recognized right away that it was not chicken.

Right. I ever heard the word pabo, and I know it was some kind of, I guess, I didn't think it was turkey. I thought it was some kind of breed of chicken.

So, I didn't realize it was turkey.

I know. Wow. Oh my God, you just really brought me back.

I just, I don't know if there was some shortage of chicken one year when she, I just remember her being upset about the pabo when she wanted to cook her relleno manok. Oh, okay. So typical Filipino fare, right?

The pabo or the turkey is the star of the show here in American Thanksgiving. And of course, there's the stuffing, the cranberry, the string beans, the creamed string beans and mashed potatoes, all of that. And I don't know about you, but to me, turkey was an acquired taste when I first arrived.

It seemed a little bit more tough. I don't know if it's just my interpretation of the texture of the turkey, but it's different from what I was used to.

Yeah, a lot of Filipinos, you know, we love our pork and our fat. So we like our meats with some kind of grease on it. And turkeys are very lean.

And you really have to work hard at making sure that it doesn't dry out during the cooking process. And I imagine a lot of Filipinos would feel the same way. And many Filipino Americans, their preference is really not for turkey.

I'm assuming a lot of immigrant families have their own version of Thanksgiving, right? So for us, for example, because there's a preference, like what you said, for other meats, it is not uncommon for turkey to be absent in Thanksgiving, and we would have pork lechon, right? Instead, it's a favorite.

A whole different species. Yeah, and I even read an article. We're going to link it to, there's like this Filipino Thanksgiving recipe article that I found.

Instead of traditional roast turkey, they would make turkey into an adobo.

Oh, okay. I never tried that. Maybe we should try that this year.

Okay.

Yeah.

Oh, I also came across this recipe for stuffing. Instead of using bread, well, or American bread, they use the pandesal.

Oh, interesting.

It's softer and fluffier. So we'll see. Maybe we'll try that as well.

Okay, this one. Toasted bibingka and crispy longganisa, baked in a salted egg custard. That's what this recipe said, instead of using stuffing.

Oh.

I mean, it sounds delicious, but a lot of work. But maybe it's worth it. Take a look at the recipe.

What else is common in the Filipino table during Thanksgiving? We would have our pancit and our Lumpia, I'm sure.

Instead of pumpkin pie, ube pie.

Oh, that sounds delicious.

And this is a Filipino take on the mashed potatoes and gravies. Ginataang mashed potato with crispy dilis. Translated, right?

It's mashed potato laced with coconut milk, ginger, and garlic. And the dilis is the anchovies, like our version of the anchovies.

Right.

Really crisped up and mixed into it. What? You seem puzzled about the mashed potato with dilis.

No, no, I'm trying to think of what the menu is this year.

Oh, and this one. Palabok, which is a type of noodle dish.

The sauce traditionally has fish in it.

Right. Like it has that strong fish sauce taste. So this recipe article, Palabok deviled eggs.

It would be the deviled eggs, but flavored with what you would find in a traditional Palabok. And it would be condensed in half an egg. So the Palabok noodle, like if you can imagine it, the picture too had the salmon roe on top of it.

Wow. I wonder if this person who published this article takes orders.

What is a traditional Thanksgiving dish would you serve together with a Filipino dish? Because we talked about the pancit, lechon. So far, I don't see any traditional Thanksgiving dish.

We do serve the turkey.

Oh, you still serve the turkey?

Yes. But the main event in my family is not the turkey out of the oven. Of course, we eat some of it, right?

My father apparently invented this tradition in our family. And everyone who visits us and experiences it takes it because he conceived of a way to make this turkey still the star of the show with a twist. And he called it Star Spangled in honor of...

You know, in honor of America, right?

Right.

Star Spangled, I mean, it's probably more apt for Independence Day, but...

Okay.

But, you know, it's still good. We would eat the turkey, and of course, the leftovers, he started to pull the turkey meat apart. It's kind of like this pulled turkey at the end of it.

So you would have the strings of turkey, and it would stay in strings because it was so tough. And my mom would mix it with seasoning and garlic, and fry it to crisp it up. That's what we really looked forward to.

Oh, because I guess the flavors have like seeped in the turkey meat. Yes, well, I do, like for the leftovers, I do similar to what like you or my Taglish came out.

I would do something similar to Paksiw na lechon. You know, I would take the leftovers, I put the gravy, a little bit of vinegar, and it turns out to be similar to Paksiw na lechon.

Oh, like a stew, right?

Like a stew, right?

Oh, that sounds good, too.

And that would be eaten for days as well.

And it would be good, right? Because the flavors would seep in.

Well, it's good for me, but my daughter would quickly tire of it. This, again, turkey's huge, so.

It's huge, and you know, we gotta make use of the leftover meat somehow. And also, I think one of the things, the side effects of this tradition that my father started, pulling apart a whole leftover turkey takes hours.

Yeah.

And so, it was also a time for us to slow down, you know, have conversation, and we're now passing it on to my niece and my nephew. Of course, the eight-year-old doesn't care for any of it, and neither would we want him anywhere near it anyway, because he would make a mess, and my niece is now a teenager, and sometimes she would roll her eyes when it was time to pull the turkey. But what I'm hoping it will do as she and he grow up is instill the intent of it, not just for the food part of it, but for the family gathering portion of it, because it really was and is still a time for me and my family to just gather around the table and share things that happened during the year and also give thanks.

It's just a time to slow down and be with each other. And like I said, whenever we had visitors, serve it with fried rice and eggs.

It could be for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner.

Yes, so the turkey leftovers would be gone before we know it.

Good for you, no waste. So, Carmina, having this conversation today, starting this Thanksgiving, I'm going to be a little bit more conscious about the traditions behind Thanksgiving. Like I think I'm going to try and learn a little bit more about the culture of the Native American nations.

I started to become more curious about the culture, I guess. And so that's going to be more interesting and exciting to me.

So we want to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. May it be a time of thanks and togetherness with family. That's our episode.

We hope you join us on our next trip. O siya, siya.

Thanks for listening to FilTrip with Carmina and Patch. Support FilTrip through Patreon or PayPal, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever all podcasts are downloaded.

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