Coca-Cola and Thanksgiving Day
One day, about 12 years ago, when I was a theological school student in New Jersey, I visited a diner with my friends. When we were choosing foods from the menu, one of my friends told us something curious. According to him, there is no American food on the menu. We replied, “Are you kidding?” But soon, we noticed that most of the food on the menu originally came from other countries. Pizza, lasagna, Pasta etc. came from Italy. Hamburger, sandwich, and sausage came from Germany. Many other foods came from Europe, Mediterranean regions, or Central and South America. And then we agreed together that America is the country which is built up by many immigrant people having their cultural heritages, so that the menu in the diner symbolically shows the mixture of cultures and traditions. At that moment, another friend suddenly put in, “Here is the original American food! I will order it.” We all turned to him. He answered, “Coca-Cola please.” Yes, Coca-Cola is the American beverage originated in USA and it is enjoyed by so many people all around the world, not only in America, but also globally.
There is another thing that our country originated. It’s a very well known national holiday that is Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving Day is deeply rooted in our heritage of the very first settler groups from various countries of Europe. It was very hard to settle in this land the first time because they needed to make everything from nothing. In spite of many difficulties, with the great help of the Native Americans, they finally could harvest their first crops from the land. In this moment, what they did for this first harvest was to express their gratitude toward God. They gave thanks to God for their very first harvest. This is the first story of Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving Day shows us the tradition to give thanks to God. And I strongly believe that it is the faithful tradition that we must keep and follow from generation to generation. I hope all of us would spend Thanksgiving Day this year with real thanksgiving to God who is with us always and who takes care of us in this world. Amen.
Pastor Jinha Choi