Today is Tryptophan Day, a.k.a. "Thanksgiving," in the United States of America.
In celebration, people usually have some sort of feast with family and/or friends, and express their gratitude for one another and their fortune. The centerpiece of this feast is usually a turkey or roast. Other dishes include things made with potatoes and/or sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and a stuffing to go inside of the turkey (if you have it.) For desert, there is pie; usually pumpkin. You can also have pecan pie, sweet potato pie, or really any sort of pie you want (since it is after all, your feast.)
Now you may be wondering whatever this nonsense is that "tryptophan" has to do with, so I shall tell ye.
Tryptophan is an amino acid; these are essential chemicals that make up proteins, your body needs them, or else.... Tryptophan is found in a variety of meats, including turkey. I have heard, though never experienced it myself (nor has anyone that I know), that eating copious amounts of turkey will make one sleepy, all thanks to this chemical. This sounds a bit silly to me, since eating enormous quantities of other meats with even more tryptophan in them than turkey mysteriously does not seem to make "them" tired. It's probably all the potatoes and pies they're piling on in addition to the turkey that is making them tired, in my opinion....
Tryptophan Day, besides a day for family, is controversial because the whole thing and all the myths surrounding it push aside (and quite frankly ignore) all the decimation, horror, and racism that the Native Americans suffered at the hands of the colonists, and would continue to (and even still do) suffer up to more recently in history. So Tryptophan Day is a day of giving thanks for what you have (like family or being able to put food on your table), and also a day to solemnly recognize the treatment of the Native Americans, and to commit to making things right and to end all the oppression and lack of equality. (Well, at least for me it is.)
In the spirit of this, there are Native American cultural festivals around this time, and the month of the November is designated Native American Heritage Month. People also volunteer to work to give/cook meals and shelter to those less fortunate, like the homeless.
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