Happy Thanksgiving!

On Saturday, Deanna and I decided to teach our young English students about Thanksgiving. We thought it would be a fun topic, as well as a good opportunity to talk about being thankful to God for the many blessings in our lives. I suggested we have all of the children draw the traditional hand-traced turkey.

The children always love arts and crafts, so they were hard at work, tracing, coloring and writing out in English what they are thankful for. And then I saw this drawing and laughed out loud.

What is it about this drawing that's so funny? Syncretism, my friends, syncretism.

Do you see the little blue triangle in the lower right hand corner? That's a krathong. Sunday was Loi Krathong, a Thai holiday when people float their krathong, made of banana leaves and flowers topped with candles, down the river to pay respect to the spirits of the water.

So, here Dee and I were, so excited to teach the children about our American holiday, but our young student was so excited about her own holiday the very next day, that she included it in her Thanksgiving work of art.

As much as this drawing made me smile (and feel psyched about an opportunity to use the word "syncretism", although I'm stretching it a bit), it also made me think about culture, beliefs and the types of things that hold meaning in cultures other than my own.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Belated Loi Krathong Day!