This Thanksgiving was special because my aunt, Sonhe Kim, was hosting two teenage boys, Hwitaeg Oh and Jihong Han, who had journeyed from Korea to America to study English.

Our Thanksgiving food – prepared by the expert hands of my cousin, Yoonsung Yang, 23, and his brother, Yoonsuk, 28 -- was all homemade. Yes, we had the requisite turkey and all the trimmings, but we also enjoyed a few things the Pilgrims never knew – like rice wine or butternut squash soup.

But these are only superficial differences. “Korean Thanksgiving and American Thanksgiving have different ways of celebrating and it feels different, but the meaning of the Thanksgiving spirit is the same,” said Yongaok Yang, Yoonsung’s 74-year-old uncle.

“I’m exhausted -- I was cooking for the last two days,” Yoonsuk said. “When I was younger Thanksgiving just meant four days off from school -- now that I am older, it is a good time to get family and friends together.”