Every year, Joe Sidoni, associate director of catering of Syracuse University Food Services, dons a chef hat and coat, gets on stage and carves a turkey at the International Thanksgiving Celebration.  

This year’s International Thanksgiving Celebration will be held Thursday at 7 p.m. in Goldstein Auditorium.  

About 450 international students and 50 table hosts usually attend the dinner, said Michelle Larrabee, a Parent and Family Services office coordinator. Staff, faculty and members of the community serve as table hosts, who introduce the students to the American Thanksgiving tradition and answer students’ questions about the holiday. 

All the food was donated from vendors that partner with SU Food Services.  

Before the dinner of turkey, vegetables and potatoes is served, both Regina Jones, the assistant director of the Native Student Program, and Evangelical Chaplain Jay Koshy will give blessings.  

T.E. Koshy, Jay Koshy’s father, started the International Thanksgiving Celebration 35 years ago. It then became an annual tradition. 

Larrabee said she has helped coordinate the dinner for at least 12 years. The dinner introduces international students to an American tradition that they may be unfamiliar with.  

“It’s really just wonderful, everyone coming together for this celebration,” Larrabee said. 

She wants this year’s event to be a time of community and coming together for those who attend. With the hate crimes and bias-related incidents that have occurred on and around campus, Larrabee said it’s unclear whether it will affect attendance, but she hopes students still come.  

“I hope the kids can come there and find comfort in each other and just enjoy a night out away from everything that’s going on on campus,” Larrabee said. 

Yapan Liu, a Ph.D. student studying mechanical engineering, attended the International Thanksgiving Celebration in 2016 and 2017. When he attended in 2016, it was his first semester at SU. He said he knew that Thanksgiving was a major holiday in America, and he wanted to find out more about it.  

Liu said there was great food and beautiful decorations at the event. The 2016 dinner was his first time seeing a turkey, he said.  

Tej Bhatia, a professor of linguistics and the director of South Asian languages at SU, said he has been a table host at the event for many years.  

Bhatia was an international student himself, and he attended a similar event while studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He believes the event makes international students feel welcome. He noted that many international students do not get a chance to go home during the break. 

“You find family outside your family here, so that’s very meaningful,” Bhatia said. 

Published on November 20, 2019 at 10:51 pm

Contact Mandy: ackrayna@syr.edu | @MandyKraynak