Thanksgiving

Coloured maize, squash and husk crafts on the Thanksgiving table:

the corn and squash that US Thanksgiving decorations copy in plastic are the crops of the traditional maize field, planted alongside beans across Guatemala, and here the real materials are close at hand. Maize in the four colours of the Maya tradition, plus speckled ears with mixed kernels, makes a centrepiece straight from the market, and the squash bought at the start of November for the candied squash of All Saints’ Day keeps on a table for weeks. Dolls and flowers made from maize husk, a craft kept up in Petén communities such as Uaxactún, fill the place that straw scarecrows take further north. The imported side is the more familiar one: fabric-leaf wreaths and garlands in rust and gold, foam and resin pumpkins, ceramic turkeys and pilgrim figures, printed table runners and paper plates with a turkey on them. Foam pumpkins often do duty at Halloween first and stay out until the end of November, and a wreath stripped of its leaves becomes the frame for a Christmas one.

Real squash or foam pumpkins, and a platter that takes the whole turkey:

choose by where the piece will sit. A real squash wants a dry, shaded spot and goes soft from the base on a damp cloth or in the sun through a window. Foam and resin will stand on a covered porch, but their orange fades towards pink in direct sun. Among fabric-leaf wreaths, the ones built on a vine or twig ring can be redressed and the ones glued to a foam ring cannot. For the meal, the pieces that matter are a platter long enough for the whole bird with room left to carve, a sharp carving knife and fork or an electric knife, and a gravy boat. Measure a platter against your largest serving dish before you buy, because a turkey-shaped platter in a decorative size takes slices, not the bird. A family-sized turkey is heavy, so the platter has to sit flat.

Turkey platters, carving knives and wreaths out of storage:

tap a ceramic platter gently with a fingernail. A clear ring means it is whole; a dull note means a crack somewhere, often a hairline on the underside that the glaze hides from above. Check the rim for chips and the foot for glue from an old repair. An electric carving knife works with two blades clipped together, so make sure both come with it; on a manual set, sight along the edge for nicks and look at the tip, which bends easily. Wreaths get crushed flat in a box and shed leaves wherever the hot glue let go, so ask to see the back as well as the front. On real maize, small round holes in the kernels mean weevils, and that ear has no place in a house with a sack of maize in the kitchen. Husk dolls that were stored damp show mould as grey or black spotting.

Thanksgiving décor for an ordinary Thursday in November:

it is worth listing from the first days of the month, because Thanksgiving is not a public holiday in Guatemala and the families who keep it fit the dinner around a working week. Put the holiday’s English and Spanish names in the title, along with the object, since the Spanish name on its own also means the thanksgiving Mass held for a fifteenth birthday or a graduation. Give a platter’s length, say whether a wreath is for indoors or out, and photograph it hung on a door rather than lying on the floor. Someone coming over from Mixco to collect a platter will want to turn it over and tap it before paying, so have it out of its box on a clear table.