What a Wizarding Thanksgiving Looks Like
Crisp colorful leaves drift through the cold air outside while the inside of the house is warm and filled with the scents of turkey and pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving is finally here. Since this is a time for family, many wizards and witches choose to come home for the holiday. Thankfully, Ilvermorny gives a week off to all its students in order to celebrate, allowing the entire family to celebrate. Once home, they have time to relax and unwind while eating the veritable feast set out for the holiday. However, the Thanksgiving meal does requires some preparation.
Thankfully, unlike Muggles, wizards have a bit of help in that department. There are plenty of cooking charms that help ease the load off the hosting family, which, once cast, allow them to relax a bit. These charms range from a simple timer spell that lets the caster know when a food has been completely cooked to more complex ones ones that will chop and mix ingredients for the caster. And while those charms are at work, the family might make their way outside for a rousing game of Quodpot. Although they better make sure to keep themselves from getting too competitive. Nobody wants to spend Thanksgiving visiting the hospital because they got their eyebrows blown off or because they got blasted off their broom, both unfortunate outcomes that sometimes happen during the game.
Once the food has been cooked, and all that excess energy has been burned off, the family comes inside to eat. Of course, to fit everyone in the extended family, there is often a judicial use of Extension Charms on both dining rooms and dining tables. Hopefully, these charms will be cast strongly enough to last the entire evening. If not, there can be amusing incidents where food and people suddenly become much closer than they would have liked.
However, while most wizards and witches will choose to go home for the holiday, not everyone does. But for any of the students and teachers at Ilvermorny, that doesn’t mean they don’t celebrate. On Thanksgiving, the school is festively decorated with garlands of fall leaves and animated turkey figurines dancing through the hallways. These figurines often delight the students, particularly the younger ones, but are the source of grumbling for most the Pukwudgies guarding the school, who can often be seen swatting at them irritably.
In the spirit of the holiday, the students are encouraged to leave notes stating what they are thankful for on the statues of Isolt and James in the front entrance. These notes can be signed or left anonymous and will be read later in the evening at the feast. The Thanksgiving feast itself is spectacular, with not only the remaining teachers and students invited to join in but also any members of the nearby wizarding community who wish to come. Continuing this spirit of togetherness, once the feast is finished, the teachers will organize a series of illusions, three-dimensional magical holograms made of light, to tell the tale of the school’s founding in order to honor the community Isolt and James showed back then as well as to celebrate the community it has become.
