Junior Suraiya Saroar

On Thanksgiving, junior Suraiya Saroar and her family balance their Bangladeshi heritage with their new American traditions. 

“The day before Thanksgiving, we go to a farm and get live turkeys. Thanksgiving morning, we’ll stand around and watch my dad or uncle kill it. After that, we skin the turkey and cook it,” junior Suraiya Saroar said. “We cook one a Desi way, in a stew like a curry. We do the other one [like] the traditional American Thanksgiving type of turkey.”

For dessert, Saroar typically has mishti, which translates to “sweets” in Bangla. Mishti is often made of a dairy base, sweeteners like jaggery or sugar, and flavoring. There are hundreds of types of mishti from Saroar’s country of origin, Bangladesh. 

“For Bangladeshi people, mishti can mean different types of little desserts. One of them that my mom usually makes around Thanksgiving time is this white [dish] with a milk base,” Saroar said. “I’m always advocating for us to get a pumpkin pie, and that’s what my brother and I usually have as well as mishti.”

Since immigrating to the United States at 5 years old, Saroar has enjoyed spending time with her family on Thanksgiving.

“In Bangladesh, we don’t have Thanksgiving, so it was interesting when me and my family moved to America and adopted this tradition. We eat a lot of untraditional Thanksgiving foods, and we don’t see Thanksgiving as its holiday. We see it as a time for all of our family to be able to come together,” Saroar said. “Especially around this time of the year, my parents constantly work, and I either work or have other activities. Thanksgiving is a nice time for all of us to spend time together and help cook and clean the house.”