An array of delicious holiday dishes is a delight to share with others on Thanksgiving—especially when the people at your table are friends.

This year, some Eastern students are celebrating something called Friendsgiving: A time to be thankful and celebrate with your best friends.

Kelsey Wirick, a sophomore international management major, attended a Friendsgiving with her boyfriend Lukas Hastings, a freshman computer information technology major, at the Delta Chi chapter house.

Hastings is a member of the Delta Chi fraternity, and the fraternity hosts an annual Friendsgiving for the members of the fraternity and their guests.

People who attended brought food such as meatballs, ham, pan cookies, buffalo mac and cheese, pie, deviled eggs and cornbread.

Wirick’s sorority, Tri Sigma, also had a Friendsgiving potluck with sign-ups for what food to bring.

Though she could not attend, she said Friendsgiving is a time for the sisterhood to be thankful for one another and what they have together.

Wirick said the Friendsgiving at the Tri Sigma chapter house is just for the sisters in that sorority.

They can spend time with one another, eat, play games and watch movies together during this time too.

EJ Hicks, a senior English major, is having their Friendsgiving with some friends back home.

They play video games or card games, eat and visit each other during this time. They all come together at one person’s house and bring dishes like mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and different desserts.

Hicks and their friends started this annual tradition with their friends when they were a freshman in high school. Hicks said that their brother and them are half the friend group, so they usually end up bringing half of the food.

The Newman Catholic Center is also hosting a Friendsgiving this year. This is their first Friendsgiving after not having one last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The set-up of Friendsgiving can go several ways.

In the case of Hicks and their friends, the host makes the turkey, since it is hard to transport and then the rest bring their signature dishes.

For Hastings at Delta Chi’s Friendsgiving, the members of the fraternity set up a spreadsheet in advance after choosing a date for the event. Within the spreadsheet you can see who is bringing what dish and who the members plus-ones are.

Tri Sigma and The Newman Catholic Center both had sign-up sheets for their Friendsgivings.

The word “Friendsgiving” was added to the dictionary in 2020, according to Merriam-Webster. It is still a fairly new word even though the Dictionary can trace back the use of it to as early as 2007.

Merriam-Webster also stated that the word started as an informal replacement for the word Thanksgiving.

The COVID-19 pandemic did bring some challenges to last years’ celebration of the holiday. Many took to the use of Zoom and other virtual mediums to hang out and celebrate the holiday with their friends.

Last year for Friendsgiving, Hicks had their friends drop food off at their house after their brother tested positive for COVID-19. Then the group used FaceTime for a bit to hangout and celebrate.

It wasn’t a perfect substitute for spending the holiday in person, but it was still important to ‘see’ them, even if the pandemic kept everyone physically apart.

Morgan Bledsoe can be reached at 581-2812 or mmbledsoe@eiu.edu.