Every year on every last Thursday of November, people in different countries celebrate Thanksgiving.  One of the main traditions is a dinner, which brings together several generations, and could take place in the oldest person’s house. This is an old tradition, but nowadays some people even don’t know about this tradition.

Another tradition, if you’re really going for it,  is that there has to be a pumpkin pie, and stuffed turkey.

Thanksgiving is a very old celebration. It comes from 1620, when the first settlers from England arrived to the New World on the “Mayflower” boat. After months, when the settlers reached America, they directly faced harsh winter; many of them died from hunger, cold and sickness.  With the help from local Indians, some of them survived, founded a colony, and started to cultivate the land.

The first governor, William Bradford, decided to celebrate Thanksgiving for the first time to thank God and those Indians who helped them, for the rich crop.

It was a very religious celebration. Nevertheless, later in the USA and Canada, it largely lost its religious significance, and became a national celebration.

There also is a tradition of festive parades, often times people wear clothes similar to what the first settlers and Indians wore in the 18th century. The largest parade is held in New York, its main attraction are huge inflatable toys.

Moreover, before Thanksgiving day, people try to engage in charity to feed homeless people, and get them some presents. Some charity companies organize free lunches for homeless people.

As we all know, Thanksgiving is not a Czech celebration. There is no holiday like that in the Czech Republic, so when it happens during Czech working week, people actually have to wait for the weekend to celebrate it with their friends and family. Compared to America, fewer places in the Czech Republic actually serve full American holiday meals. However, there are still some good restaurants in Prague to celebrate Thanksgiving Day.

A very famous restaurant in Prague for that is the Jama restaurant. It is decorated, and has the real Thanksgiving atmosphere, the food is tasty, and people love going there to celebrate Thanksgiving. This place has a three-course Thanksgiving menu. For example, this year it will be 390 CZK for a menu which will include: corn chowder, dark and white turkey, honey-glazed ham, homemade sage stuffing with brown gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans with bacon, and for dessert – a ginger pumpkin pie. It is a really good price for this amount of food. If you would like to celebrate Thanksgiving, then make sure that you reserve a table because many people want to.

Another place in Prague, which would make you and your family happy, is Bohemia Bagel. On this day they will offer their visitors a fulfilling menu, and they will be pleased to give you more if you ask for some extra food you like. The menu includes all the traditional food for Thanksgiving day and some specialities. They have a good menu this year, and they promise that even a vegetarian would be satisfied. What is really good about the place is that kids under three years are for free. For adults and teenagers 12+, it will cost 550 CZK at the door, and 49O CZK if reserved. Kids under 12 are 290 CZK.

If you are the kind of brave person who wants to cook the dinner by yourself, but wants to get really good products, or you wanted a roasted dinner, because you had no time prepare one, then you should know about one more place: Robertson’s Deli. This is a British place where you can get a fresh, huge turkey for 800 CZK. They also have American sausages and bacon. You can order what you want online, and pick it up where you want in the city. Convenient, isn’t it?

Yes, Thanksgiving is not a Czech celebration day, but they still respect It, and some restaurants try hard to make people satisfied and cook tasty traditional food for this day with really good prices.

This article was written by Dina Romantsova.