Thanksgiving is an annual celebration of the harvest and its bounty.
What’s more, Thanksgiving joins a category of feasts that transcends civilizations and years.
In ancient times, the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans feasted and paid homage to their gods after the autumn harvest.
It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States.
As tradition dictates, the students in the International American Section prepared their feast, and on December 1st, together, they celebrated, discovered and enjoyed this immersion in American traditions.
Students from 6ème to 2nde brought food for the meal and invited the youngest students in the section, the CM1 and CM2 classes.
The dishes, prepared in advance by parents from the collège and lycée, were reheated by canteen staff.
Dishes included pumpkin pie, cornbread, macaroni and cheese, stuffing, chocolate brownies and tons of turkey (one parent even brought a whole turkey!).
Some parents came to the school to drop off their dishes a few minutes before the celebration began.
Since the celebration involves more than traditional food, each class had a well-defined mission: the 2nd graders presented the history of the celebration, the 4th graders gave a presentation on table manners, and finally, the 3rd graders made a toast.
The day was also an opportunity for the students to meet the other classes in the section: at each table there was a good mix of CM1 to 2nde, and a list containing ideas for topics of conversation was waiting to be used.
Thanksgiving is the day of gratitude, so it was an opportunity for students to contribute to a chain of gratitude – a paper chain on which each student wrote what they were thankful for.
We’d like to thank the parents who prepared all the delicious dishes, the canteen staff who helped organize the event, and the students who showed us what an American party is like in a French school.
Our warmest thanks also go to the two teachers, Mme Sidney Karesh, and Sarah Lernout.
LfiSV opened its first American Section for middle school last year and continued this year with the opening of the section for elementary school.
There are 28 students in primary school and 51 in middle and high school.
The American International Section is a linguistic and bicultural program set up by the French Education Nationale in cooperation with the United States.
It is unique in that it integrates not only the French language, but also American culture, into the French system.
