On December 16, 1838 (so the story goes) an Afrikaner/Voortrekker force of less than 500 men were facing a much larger Zulu force of 10,000. Led by one man (two names are given, depending on whose version you believe) the Afrikaners took a vow that if God helped them to defeat their opponents, they would build a church, and hold that day sacred from then on. They won the battle, sustaining a miraculously low number of injuries, and went on to celebrate the day as one of thanksgiving - the religious holiday known as the Day of the Vow (changed in the 1980s to "Day of the Covenant", for reasons I am unable to ascertain, and also known as Dingaansdag or "Dingaan Day" after the Zulu king defeated in the battle).
Obviously, the racial aspect of this is pretty clear. So when Apartheid ended and democracy began, rather than get rid of a well-established public holiday, the government renamed it to the Day of Reconciliation: "A day to focus on overcoming the conflicts of the past and building a new nation." The public holiday also falls, conveniently, the day after the traditional "builders shutdown" or close of the business year, when tradespeople took their "long" holiday. Builders shutdown doesn't officially happen any more, but a lot of businesses still close from around the 15 December to early January.
So basically this is as close to Thanksgiving as SA gets. And neither the old version nor the new is actually celebrated by the average man-on-the-street, because we're all too busy getting drunk and braaing (BBQing, more-or-less).
And the really sad thing is that I had to turn to Google for this information, because it was totally glossed over at school. So I thought I'd share my new-found knowledge with TK, in the hopes that you might find it interesting. So here endeth the history lesson.
I don't think DH and I will actually be braaing today though. We'll probably watch movies and eat lemon tart instead. Have you got anything fun planned for your Tuesday?