Thanksgiving Is More Than Turkey: Connecting Cross-Generational Family Memories with Eastern Joss Paper
03 Dec 2025
On a Thanksgiving morning in the suburbs of Boston, polished silver tableware was laid out on the oak dining table, and the aroma of roasted turkey mixed with cinnamon wafted from the oven. However, Mrs. Lin, a Chinese-American, spread a dark brown flannel cloth by the fireplace and carefully took out a stack of joss paper—printed with simple maple leaf patterns on the front, with a blank area for writing the family surname in the upper right corner. She held a fountain pen and carefully wrote "Lin" on it. Behind her, her 7-year-old son held a cartoon turkey doll and asked curiously: "Mom, isn't this money? Are we giving red envelopes to Santa Claus on Thanksgiving?"
This was the fifth Thanksgiving since Mrs. Lin's family immigrated to the United States, and the first time she added an Eastern worship ritual beside the turkey feast. In previous Thanksgivings, she would only follow her husband to place the pumpkin pie mold passed down from her mother-in-law and listen to her mother-in-law tell the story of "how great-grandmother made desserts with wild fruits during the pioneering era". It wasn't until last Qingming Festival, when she watched her parents in China burn joss paper via video call and her father said, "Burning paper is not superstition, but telling our family stories to our ancestors", that she suddenly realized: the "gratitude for ancestors' gifts" in Western Thanksgiving is essentially the same family sentiment as the "burning joss paper to worship ancestors" in Chinese Qingming Festival.
These two seemingly different expressions hide the simplest respect for family roots. In an Italian-American family in Chicago, the Thanksgiving table always features the handwritten recipe of great-grandmother's tomato meat sauce. The yellowed paper is stained with oil stains from a hundred years ago, and the younger generation learns to make the sauce while listening to the stories of their ancestors' immigration. In an old house in Guangzhou, after burning joss paper during Qingming Festival, the elders will point to the ashes and tell the story of "how your grandfather went to Southeast Asia with this stack of 'travel expenses'". Today, this emotional resonance has a new carrier in overseas Chinese families—the "Family Inheritance Joss Paper" specially designed for Thanksgiving.
The design of this joss paper is full of ingenuity. The R&D team abandoned the complicated totems of traditional joss paper and used maple leaf and corn ear patterns familiar to North American families as the background, which not only fits the Thanksgiving atmosphere but also avoids cultural barriers. The blank area in the upper right corner allows writing the family surname. Mrs. Lin said, "The moment I wrote 'Lin', it was like stamping the roots of the whole family on it." The most intimate part is the supporting English worship script card printed with "Dear ancestors, thank you for your guidance. This is a gift for you.", which solves the problem of Chinese parents "explaining Eastern rituals to their children in English".
Mrs. Lin's experience is not unique. In the Chinese community in Los Angeles, many families have added joss paper worship to their Thanksgiving rituals this year. When Engineer Mr. Zhang taught his 10-year-old daughter to fold joss paper, the girl pointed to the blank surname area and asked, "What's our family's story?" This gave him the chance to tell her how her grandfather sneaked into the United States from Guangdong and worked three jobs in a Chinatown restaurant to pay for his education. "Before, my daughter only knew that we eat turkey and say 'thank you' on Thanksgiving," Mr. Zhang wrote in his customer feedback. "This year, after burning the joss paper, she took the initiative to place her grandfather's photo in the center of the table and said, 'We must thank great-grandfather for his hard work so that we can have our home today'."
What's more unexpected is that this cross-cultural ritual has also touched many non-Chinese families. Mrs. Lin's neighbor, the Browns, accidentally saw her family's worship scene. After learning the meaning of "conveying gratitude with joss paper", they specially asked her to buy a set. On Thanksgiving Day, Mrs. Brown wrote her husband's family surname "Brown" on the joss paper and told her children the story of her great-grandfather's participation in World War II with her husband: "Just as you Chinese say 'ancestors will receive the gifts', we believe great-grandfather can feel our gratitude."
In the evening, the flame in the fireplace flickered. Mrs. Lin lit the joss paper printed with "Lin", and the ashes rose gently with the warm air. Her son stopped asking about red envelopes and held his grandfather's old photo: "Mom, will great-grandfather be happy to receive the money? Did he like eating turkey too?" Mrs. Lin shook her head with a smile and told him about the Cantonese roasted meat that her grandfather loved most, and how he worked three jobs in Chinatown to support his father's college education. The aroma of turkey mingled with the warmth of burning paper, and the stories on the dining table extended from pumpkin pie to Cantonese life. The family memories spanning the Pacific Ocean found the warmest connection on this Thanksgiving.
It turns out that the core of Thanksgiving is never how fragrant the turkey is, but that family stories can be passed down from generation to generation. Just like Eastern joss paper is never just simple paper money, but a "memory carrier" bearing longing and gratitude. When maple leaf patterns meet the blank surname area, and English scripts connect with Eastern rituals, we finally understand: what transcends culture is never the form of worship, but the respect and gratitude for family roots hidden behind the rituals
Interactive Topic: What "intergenerational gratitude practices" does your family have? Grandma’s recipes, Grandpa’s tools, or new carriers for old stories like Mr. Li? Share below
Sample Block Quote
Praesent vestibulum congue tellus at fringilla. Curabitur vitae semper sem, eu convallis est. Cras felis nunc commodo eu convallis vitae interdum non nisl. Maecenas ac est sit amet augue pharetra convallis.
Sample Paragraph Text
Praesent vestibulum congue tellus at fringilla. Curabitur vitae semper sem, eu convallis est. Cras felis nunc commodo eu convallis vitae interdum non nisl. Maecenas ac est sit amet augue pharetra convallis nec danos dui. Cras suscipit quam et turpis eleifend vitae malesuada magna congue. Damus id ullamcorper neque. Sed vitae mi a mi pretium aliquet ac sed elitos. Pellentesque nulla eros accumsan quis justo at tincidunt lobortis deli denimes, suspendisse vestibulum lectus in lectus volutpate.
