The Influence of US Thanksgiving to Filipinos

Thanksgiving is celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November, every year, as an American public and federal holiday. But did you know that, for several decades, Thanksgiving had also been celebrated in the Philippines?

During the American period (1901–1935), the Philippines, being an American colony and part of the territory of the United States, celebrated the holiday annually, also in November. American Governors-General would issue proclamations declaring Thanksgiving a holiday celebrated by Filipinos nationwide.

When the Commonwealth of the Philippines was established in 1935, President Quezon continued to decree the American Thanksgiving Day in the Philippines as a national holiday. This public practice continued secretly during the Japanese occupation. After the Second World War, the Thanksgiving Day tradition continued as a special public holiday. Upon the declaration of Martial Law in 1972, Thanksgiving Day was moved to September 21.

Today, American expatriates, along with the Fil-Ams returning in the Philippines, will make preparations in celebrating the most important holiday of the year and will flock to the grocery stores to buy turkeys as the main feast for dinner, to be served with family recipes for apple pie, pumpkin soup, and other traditional American Thanksgiving dishes.