Celebrating Thanksgiving in Ukraine

The United States’ Thanksgiving festival occupies a singular place in North American culture. Although many nations possess harvest celebrations or autumn festivals, Thanksgiving has become a repository for a distinctive American narrative: the encounter between European settlers and the indigenous peoples of New England, the hardships of frontier life, and the assertion of a national mythology that ties together themes of providence, community spirit and renewal. For Americans who find themselves spending the late November holiday far from home, these themes of distance, resilience and reflection upon origins become particularly resonant. Nowhere is this more so than for the soldiers, aid workers and volunteers who live and work in Ukraine, a country enduring the privations of war yet characterised by extraordinary hospitality and civic solidarity.

The origins of Thanksgiving are conventionally located in the activities of the English Puritans who settled Plymouth Colony in 1620. Having arrived in New England after a perilous transatlantic crossing, the colonists suffered a severe first winter that killed roughly half their number. Their survival was attributed by contemporary chroniclers to divine providence and to the assistance of the Wampanoag, who helped them plant unfamiliar crops and adapt to the harsh local climate. In the autumn of 1621, the settlers and their indigenous neighbours partook in a multi-day harvest feast. Although historians debate the extent to which this event resembled the modern Thanksgiving meal, it has nevertheless been memorialised as a founding moment of communal gratitude and intercultural cooperation, even as the later history of relations between settlers and Native Americans grew dark and violent.

Thanksgiving did not become a national holiday until much later. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was marked at differing times by various states and communities, often with a religious or moralising character. It was President Abraham Lincoln who, in 1863 and at the height of the American Civil War, proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be observed on the final Thursday of November. His intention was to cultivate a sense of unity and reflection during the nation’s gravest internal crisis. It was only in the twentieth century, with growing federal influence over civic life and the development of mass media, that Thanksgiving became an entrenched fixture of the American calendar, complete with parades, televised football matches and the ritualised meal of turkey, cranberries and pumpkin pie.

In contemporary American society, Thanksgiving functions as a secular ritual of belonging. For families, it is often the most important annual gathering, eclipsing Christmas in terms of travel volume. For newcomers to the United States, participation signals a step towards cultural integration. For those overseas, the festival takes on a more introspective character. It becomes a moment not just for celebration but for reckoning with what it means to be American when one is far from home.

This sense of distance is keenly felt by Americans stationed or volunteering in Ukraine. Some are military advisers or soldiers attached to their own national forces or integrated into multinational training missions. Others are humanitarian workers, medical staff, reconstruction specialists or volunteers supporting Ukrainian civil society. Still others are independent activists raising funds, delivering supplies or assisting displaced families. Although their roles vary widely, they are united by the experience of living in a country at war, where the rhythms of daily life differ markedly from the commercialised calm of a North American Thanksgiving weekend.

For these Americans, the holiday is seldom marked by the familiar rituals. Traditional ingredients are often difficult to procure, ovens unreliable, and time scarce. A makeshift turkey, if obtainable, may be shared amongst dozens rather than served as a centrepiece. Cranberries might be tinned imports from Poland or improvised with local berries. Volunteers in Lviv, Kyiv or Odesa may gather in rented apartments, community kitchens or safehouses. Soldiers on rotation near the front line may find themselves eating field rations while contacting families by patchy internet. Yet these constraints often reinforce, rather than dilute, the meaning of the occasion. Gratitude becomes not a formality but a reminder of the things left behind: safety, comfort, and the easy proximity of loved ones.

Ukrainians, for their part, frequently respond with warmth and curiosity. Although Thanksgiving is not a Ukrainian festival, it resonates in a society where hospitality is a deeply embedded cultural value and where shared meals play a central role in expressing respect and solidarity. Many Americans report that their Ukrainian colleagues offer to cook local dishes, to substitute ingredients creatively or simply to gather together in a spirit of camaraderie. The wartime atmosphere adds a sense of mutual understanding: Ukrainians know what it is to endure separation from home and family, and to confront insecurity with quiet dignity.

For Americans in Ukraine, Thanksgiving also brings an acute awareness of the contrast between their own temporary sacrifice and the far larger sacrifices made by Ukrainian civilians and soldiers. The holiday prompts reflection upon the privileges of citizenship, the responsibilities of democratic societies and the meaning of service abroad. It is not uncommon for Americans in Ukraine to describe a sense of humility during the festival, as they witness the extraordinary resilience of the communities they serve.

In the end, the American Thanksgiving festival is more than a commemoration of a seventeenth-century harvest. It is a civic meditation upon survival, gratitude and the bonds of community. For those observing it in Ukraine, surrounded by a nation fighting for her freedom, these themes take on a solemn clarity. The improvised meals, the absent families, the shared stories in candle-lit apartments or cold military barracks all become part of a deeper understanding of what the festival seeks to convey. In its origins, Thanksgiving marked the endurance of a beleaguered community in an unfamiliar land. For Americans in Ukraine today, far from home but close to purpose, it continues to serve precisely that function.