Sawt Falasteen - Americans celebrate Thanksgiving after bitter election

Despite a driving rain in New York, crowds still arrived to watch the annual parade of marching bands, mega-balloons and floats.

Celebrities scheduled to appear outside Macy's, the iconic department store, the longtime sponsor of the parade, included singers Kylie Minogue, Jennifer Hudson and Cynthia Erivo, star of the new "Wicked" film.

Similar events were planned in cities across the United States to mark the holiday, which has been celebrated for centuries and codified in 1941 as falling on the fourth Thursday of November.

Viewed as a moment for families to get together -- typically around a big meal starring a roast turkey -- it is the busiest travel season of the year.

A record of nearly 80 million people were expected to hit the roads, fly or use another mode of transportation to travel over 50 miles (80 kilometers) around the holiday, the AAA, a national automobile group, estimated.

But many had to contend with a major storm system that swept across the country this week, which was continuing Thursday to dump rain and snow on the northeast, including in New York and Boston.

The holiday also features multiple NFL football matches, which many Americans watch in a post-feast slumber.

- 'Radical left lunatics' -

Families divided over their political views were also bracing for potential strife, with the holiday gatherings the first since the November 5 election won by Donald Trump.

With the highly divisive Republican's impending return to the White House, many families are hoping to avoid discussion of politics altogether.

The divide has already been too much for some, who are forgoing the gatherings altogether, such as Deb Miedema in Minnesota.

"I can't imagine preparing a meal for 40 people and half of them are OK with this situation," the 50-year-old told AFP.

"Trump doesn't stop telling lies, he's a criminal, and all of that is fine with them."

President Joe Biden meanwhile was spending his last Thanksgiving as president with family on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he visited a local fire department on Thursday and briefly spoke to reporters.

Asked what he was thankful for, the 82-year-old replied: "My family, the peaceful transition of the presidency, and I'm thankful by the grace of God we were able to make more progress in the Middle East."

He also said Trump, who has promised wide-ranging reforms, may have a "little bit of internal reckoning" when he takes office in January, given his party's narrow control of Congress.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who recently vacationed in Hawaii after her election loss, was scheduled to speak to military families and visited a Washington nonprofit to help prepare free meals.

"On Thanksgiving, we also express our gratitude as a nation for our service members and their families, the sacrifice so much to protect our nation and our most sacred values," she said in a video released on social media.

Trump, for his part, posted on social media: "Happy Thanksgiving to all, including to the Radical Left Lunatics who have worked so hard to destroy our Country, but who have miserably failed."

Z.AbuSaud--SF-PST