Thanksgiving in Ireland

Thanksgiving in Ireland is going to be a bit different.  Since it is an American holiday my husband will not have traditional Thursday and Friday off of work.  In fact today is the day of and he is at work right now.  We have decided to move our celebration to Saturday instead which seems to be the norm in America for those that do work on the Holiday.
I thought for this post I would try to go over a few things.  I have had several people ask me a few questions about the holiday and so I thought I might go over a few things.

Question 1- Do the Irish observe Thanksgiving and are they aware of it?  For some it seems obvious that they would not celebrate but some have never really put thought into it.  No, they do not observe it since it is all about America, Pilgrims, Native Americans, the Mayflower and such.  They do however know about the holiday.  Every Irish person I have spoke with on the topic has known about it. 

Question 2- Can you get a Turkey in Ireland?  Yes, it turns out it is an extremely popular food for Christmas.  We have been told that the Irish really look forward to their Christmas turkey.  We have been seeing many bins full of turkeys since early November.

Question 3- Does Ireland have other Thanksgiving type foods available?  Yes and no.  I went the other night with list in hand to find all that I needed for our celebration day.  When shopping I could not find any canned pumpkin, canned yams, or marshmallow cream.  Once we had trouble finding these items we went in search of help.  The person we asked for help gave us a very strange look when we said canned pumpkin.  They do not carry those or yams.  They have to be specially ordered.  That was such a strange concept to my mind.  What is even stranger, to me, is that the Irish do not eat pumpkin pie or candied yams.   (I have so much to learn)  They do however eat cranberry sauce, turkey, ham, stuffing, some type of vegetable and, of course, potatoes.  (there is many other items they traditionally eat but I will get back to those on a future post)

Our plan for food will be
Turkey, cranberry, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green beans, some appetizers, cheesecake, cherry pie and thanks to our wonderful pastor and his wife we will get to make a pumpkin pie!  While visiting with them in their home, they being Americans, had some canned pumpkin.  They very graciously offered us a can.  I can't express to you just how much I appreciated that.  I wanted to attack them with a hug and a kiss but instead very discreetly took the can and held onto it with a smile on my face.  (our God is such a merciful and gracious God.  Even my want for pumpkin pie matters to Him)

So, other than missing some of our family and friends we are looking forward to having a wonderful celebration.