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Thanksgiving Traditions in Asian Countries

Wild Turkeys

Are there Thanksgiving traditions in Asian Countries? Thanksgiving is thought of as a true American holiday that started with the Pilgrims celebrating a bountiful harvest with the Wampanoag Indians in 1621. The celebration of the fall harvest is not something new and could easily be found in other countries. So let’s look at the Thanksgiving traditions in some of our favorite tea growing countries.

Mid-Autumn Festival in China

China does not have a holiday that corresponds to the US Thanksgiving. They do have a Mid-Autumn festival that has been around for about 3,000 years that celebrates the first full autumn moon, which happens to correspond with the fall harvest of crops. The Mid-Autumn Festival does includes big dinners with family, but those are the norm for most of the important Chinese holidays. The food of choice for this festival is mooncakes. Not to be confused with the American Moon Pie cookie, mooncakes are a small pastry with a dense filling. There are different fillings and flavors based on the region of China that you live in. They are always served with tea. So we will save a more in depth discussion on mooncakes for a later blog. The Chinese government does recognize American holidays and encourages local businesses to make turkey available around the American holiday where there are larger numbers of American’s are living in China. Currently there are believed to about 100k Americans with green cards living and working in China (The US government does not count US citizens who live aboard that are not associated with the US military or diplomatic operations, it is done by other organizations).

Vietnam… And American Thanksgiving Dinner Feasts

The Vietnamese, much like the Chinese, have a Mid-Autumn festival that celebrates the moon and the fall harvest of crops. Many of the Vietnam holidays follow the Chinese, so this isn’t a surprise. However, Vietnam has a large and growing American tourist trade, so finding an American Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and cranberry sauce is a little easier. You just have to book reservations about a month or two in advance in Hanoi at some of the higher end restaurants to get your turkey dinner with cranberry sauce and stuffing.

Labor Thanksgivig Niiname-sai dance Katori Jingu Shrine, Katori City, Japan

Niiname-sai,traditional Japanese dance by Wikimedia user katorisi.

Japan Labor Thanksgiving

Japan has a formal Thanksgiving holiday on November 23rd every year. It is called Labor Thanksgiving and was introduced into the country after World War II during the U.S. occupation. The Japanese put their own twist on it by using the holiday to honor each others’ work through out the year. Labor unions use the day to hold festivals focused on human rights, peace and the environment. Labor Thanksgiving was combined with the ancient celebration of the fall harvest of rice, Niinamesai. It is documented that Niinamesai was first celebrated in 678 C.E. During Niinamesai, the Emperor presents the first harvest of rice to the Gods and partakes of the rice himself.

Mint: 5 Facts about the first addition to tea

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A field of mint plants.

As we head into the holiday season, it is hard not to find a sweet or beverage that does not have mint. So let’s take a moment to learn a few things about the plant that creates this flavor and how it blends with tea.

Human’s consumption of mint has been around a long time. Sprigs of dried peppermint were found in the pyramids of Ancient Egypt and carbon-dated back to 1000 B.C.E. The name mint comes from the Greek mythical nymph Minthe, who was a river nymph along the River Styx. Hades, the Greek God of the underworld, feel in love with Minthe. His wife, Persephone got jealous and turned her into the plant we know today. So that she would always be remembered, Hades gave the plant the ability to produce the aromatic oil we all know and use today.
Mint is the first known addition to tea. Through the silk road, tea traveled from China into the Middle East and Northern Africa. It is here that it was blended with the tea to make a localized beverage. Moroccan Mint tea is the name commonly know today in Europe and the United States. However, it goes by the name Tuareg tea in the Middle East.
Mint has a long list of uses for medicinal purposes. It is no mistake that there is mint toothpaste, mint mouthwash or mint flavored floss. Mint has been used for centuries to cure bad breath. It was also used to sooth an upset stomach and to relieve headaches (through the application of mint oil on the forehead).
The United States is the largest grower of mint worldwide. Washington State is home to the most acreage with other Northwestern states like Idaho, not far behind. There is a push to grow it in the south, but it does require that nitrogen be added to the southern soil for it to grow properly and produce the expect amount of oil. There are over 71,000 acres of mint currently growing in the United States. The majority of the mint grown is used to produce mint oil, which is used to flavor all sorts of items that humans consume.
Mint can be steeped alone as its own tisane. If you happen to grow your own, just pluck a few leaves and steep in boiling water for 7 minutes. It will be a minty mouthful. If your mint is not very minty, see the note before about your soil content. Mint needs nitrogen and a dormant period to really produce a strong oil.

Earl Grey Infused Cranberry Sauce

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Add some intrigue with an Earl Grey infused cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so it is time to start planning what is considered one of most important meals in America. For tea lovers, it is a chance to use our favorite beverage in several dishes to highlight how it adds depth and flavor you will not find with other ingredients. For me, freshly made cranberry sauce is a requirement. It probably has more to do with the fact that it is the key ingredient in my favorite coffee cake from childhood than anything else, but it also brightens up the presentation of the other food, like turkey. So let’s jump right into making one of the easiest side dishes in the Thanksgiving meal.

Earl Grey Infused Cranberry Sauce: Ingredients

1 12oz package of fresh cranberries (look in the produce section)
1 cup of water
4 grams (Rounded Tablespoon) of Earl Grey Tea
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp of fresh orange zest (optional)

Earl Grey Infused Cranberry Sauce: Equipment

Colander
Glass measuring cup for at least 2 cups
Container to refrigerate the cranberry sauce in
1 quart pot and lid
Strainer for tea
Oven mitts
Long handled spoon for stirring
Spatula
Timer
Micro-planer to zest the orange

Earl Grey Infused Cranberry Sauce: Steps

Cooking this recipe only takes about 15 minutes and requires you to be focused on the sauce in the pot, so you will notice a lot of these steps are focused on preparing to cook. Skip them at your own risk.

Empty the package of cranberries into the colander and rinse under water. Now is your one chance to sort through them, remove any stems that may still be there, and remove any bad cranberries. Bad cranberries are cranberries that are soft and wrinkled or have soft spots on them. You do not want these in your sauce as they will ruin the flavor and can make you sick.
Once you have sorted your cranberries, pour them in the pot and add sugar and put the pot on the stove. DO NOT turn on the burner yet.
Start your kettle for the water for tea. While the kettle is heating up you can put your tea in the glass measuring cup and get out the container, long handled spoon, spatula, timer and oven mitts and put them by the stove where you can get to them quickly.
Add the boiling water to the tea and steep for 5 minutes. Remember you only need 1 cup of water.
When the 5 minutes are up, pour the water through the strainer straight into the pot with the cranberries and water. Turn on the burner now to high and use your long handled spoon to stir in any sugar that did not get into the tea.
Set your timer to 10 minutes and put on your oven mitts to protect your arms from splash back from the popping cranberries. Once you hear your first cranberry pop, start the timer and start stirring. The goal is to allow the sauce to come up to a rolling boil while you are stirring. Once you have that boil, drop the heat down to medium and keep stirring. You are only stirring for 10 minutes and it does not need to be a vigorous stir. Just keep the cranberries and liquid moving. If you want more of jelly consistency to your sauce, squash the popped cranberries with back of your spoon against the side of the pan as you stir. If you like whole cranberry sauce, just stir.
When the timer is up, turn off the burner and take the pan off the heat. This is when,if you want, you will add the orange zest by running the micro-planer lightly over the outside of the orange. The goal is to get as much of the orange skin without the white pith underneath. You are looking for a tsp, which is find is about 3-4 passes over the orange based on its size. I just zest over the sauce and stir.
Pour the sauce into your storage container and leave the lid off to allow the sauce to come down to room temperature. Once at room temperature, put the lid on and put it into the refrigerator. If you do not have time for this, you can put on the lid and put it into the refrigerator, just realize that condensation will form on the inside of the container which may cause your sauce to be more runny than you want.

When the sauce cools down (it will take a few hours), have a taste. The bergamot oil will be present, but not overwhelming. It makes for a nice change to traditional dish.

Want to go all out this Thanksgiving with tea infusions? Check out Irish Soda Bread, Matcha Salad Dressing, and Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream for dessert!

Hungry Ghost Festival – Halloween in China

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As Halloween approaches here in the US,the question arises does China have a similar holiday and do they serve tea? The answer is a surprising yes as it turns out. The Hungry Ghost Festival, or Zhong Yuan Ji, is quite similar to the US Halloween, but there are also some big differences.

Hungry Ghost Festival Origins

All Saints Day from which we get Halloween

The Hungary Ghost Festival originates from the Buddhist and Taoist beliefs that the gates to the afterlife open on the first day of 7th month of the Lunar calendar, which usually falls in August but sometimes in July. While the basis of the tradition is in religion, many of the festivals, food, and decorations are based in Chinese folk tradition. This is very similar to Halloween, in that Halloween originated from Celtic folk tradition and was merged by the Catholic church into All Saints Day (a day to honor the dead and atone them of their sins), with the folk traditions of dressing up as a ghost and offering food to visiting spirits still playing a large role in the celebration.

Hungry Ghost Festival Traditions

Burning Joss Paper Money ( CC BY-SA 3.0 by Vmenkov)

There are special traditions marked on the 1st day, the 15th day and the last day of the hungry ghost month. On the 1st day, joss paper is burnt outside of businesses and homes as a way to give the ghosts the money they need during the month on Earth. Joss paper acts as a representation of real money and little piles of ashes can be found all over the streets and at temples during this time. The 15th day of the month is marked as the holiday to feed the ghosts and to honor your deceased family members through a small shrine of pictures in the home, burning of incense near the pictures, and an elaborate meal with empty seats at the table left for the ancestors to sit in on the feast. Food may also be burned during this day so that the ghosts may take it with them into the afterlife. Tea is also burned so that the ghosts have their favorite beverage in the afterlife. The last day of the month is marked through the lighting of paper lanterns, the burning of more food, joss paper, and clothing so that the ghosts may have them in their afterlife, and the family pictures are returned to the shelves and walls. Unlike the Chinese holiday of Qing-Ming in the spring, this festival is less about honoring your ancestors and more about keeping those pesky ghosts from causing too much trouble. Food, beverages (tea especially), and other gifts are left out to feed and entertain the ghosts. Public concerts are held to entertain both the living and the dead and it is quite common to stumble over buckets and baskets of food placed on door steps, at bases of trees and just out on the sidewalk from the beginning of the month till the end of the month. So while we pass out candy to our little ghosts, it is nice to remember how similar human beliefs can be even if they are celebrated in different ways.

Halloween Tea Cookies

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Fun Tea & Spooky Halloween Themed Cookies

These fun Halloween tea cookies use matcha to get their green color and can be shaped into all sorts of different shapes. This recipe makes around 36 cookies if done as a simple round cookie.

Halloween Tea Cookies – Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1½ cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons Matcha
1 egg
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ cup granulated sugar for rolling cookies
Eyeball candies
Gummy candies

Halloween Tea Cookies – Instructions

Cream together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add Egg and Matcha and mix until well-combined.
Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and vanilla.
Scrap dough out of the bowl and onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Wrap the dough and put into the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, 2-3 is better, to allow the butter to harden again. This will keep the cookies from spreading out as much.
When ready to bake the cookies, preheat oven to 350º F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.
Scoop cookie dough by the tablespoon full and roll into a ball. Place each ball of cookie dough into the bowl of granulated sugar and roll to coat well. Place cookie dough onto baking sheet, spacing about 1½-inches to 2 inches apart. Lightly press each cookie down. If decorating, you can put on your hard candies now on the top of the cookies and press in. If you put in the gummy candies now, they may slightly melt creating a cool melted colored sugar effect on the top. If it is important to keep them hole, wait until you pull the cookies to add them.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and decorate with the gummy candies while the cookies are still warm. Just lightly press the gummy candies into the cookies. Allow the cookies to cool on the tray before removing. Store the cookies in an air tight container in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve.

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