By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS

With more than 100 people in attendance — the highest number of guests in decades — the American Benevolent Society (ABS) hosted a lavish, three-course Thanksgiving Day luncheon at Mexico City’s Christ Church Parish on Thursday, Nov. 24,

The traditional meal, which reflected the classic Thanksgiving meal generally consumed across the United States on that day, included a Waldorf and marshmallow salad, roast turkey and dressing with all the trimmings and freshly baked pumpkin pie with vanilla ice cream, served with a range of both red and white wines and the ABS’ famous jalapeño and cream cheese hors d’oeuvres.

“This is a very special occasion for most of us, the first time we have been able to all get together and enjoy a Thanksgiving meal after two and a half years of covid-19 lockdown,” said ABS executive director Aliki Elias at the start of the event.

“That means that today is a day both for offering thanks and for giving to others.”

Elias went on to explain that “Thanksgiving is a distinctively American holiday.”

“There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world,” she said.

“It celebrates neither a savage battle nor the fall of a great city. It does not mark the anniversary of a great conqueror or the birthday of a famous stateman.”

Instead, she said, the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday “is the expression of a deep feeling of gratitude by our people for the rich productivity of the land, a memorial of the dangers and hardships through which we have safely passed, and a fitting recognition of all that God in His goodness has bestowed upon us.”

Aliki then went on to read the story of the five grains of corn that the earliest European settlers had rationed to them each day during their first terrible winter in the Americas, a winter than led to the death of nearly half of all the Mayflower pilgrims.

Later, Christ Church Rector Elisabeth Anne Sinclair led the guests in a nondenominational prayer of thanksgiving.

At the end of the meal, the ABS held a small raffle to help earn money to support its many charitable efforts within the English-speaking community in Mexico.

Founded in 1868, the American Benevolent Society is a nonprofit organization that provides charitable assistance to both U.S. and Mexican nationals during periods of personal distress or financial need.