Thanksgiving in the Islands of the Bahamas

Although Thanksgiving isn't an official holiday in the Bahamas, it's widely celebrated by locals and guests.

You see, we island people love to eat and be merry. Any excuse for a feast!

Today, countless hot meals of turkey and stuffing will be served to the needy here in the Bahamas and many families will tuck in to a delicious meal tonight.

We have a lot to be thankful for, especially when we think about the turbulence in the troubled parts of the world today.

You might say we have the best of two worlds here in the Bahamas. We enjoy the holidays and traditions of Britain, our mother country, and many of us celebrate Thanksgiving and Halloween, American-style.

From Britain, we have the Boxing Day holiday on December 26. In days of yore, servants got the day off and received boxes of gifts and food in exchange for working their guts out on Christmas day. From our African population, we inherited the wonderful festival of Junkanoo - an amazing expression of art, dance and music - during this holiday season.

We have a ton of fun on Guy Fawkes Day, burning Guy in effigy and setting off fireworks to mark the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot of November 5, 1605. Guy was involved in the attempt to kill King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne by blowing up the House of Lords.

The U.S. and Bahamas share historical similarities and ties. For instance, the Puritans left England for the U.S. in the name of religious freedom, just as an English band known as the Eleutheran Adventurers fled Bermuda for the Bahamas.

And let's not forget, many of our early settlers left the U.S. after the American War of Independence so they could remain loyal to the British Crown here in the Bahamas.They helped build the Bahamas.

While we enjoy a sumptuous meal of turkey and whatever manner of food we island people will put on the table – conch salad, Johnny cake and Kalik, the beer of the Bahamas - let's pause for a moment and give thanks.

To our American neighbours just north of us, Happy Thanksgiving.