To many immigrants from Fujian Province in southeastern China, Thanksgiving does not mean turkey, stuffing and football. It is instead a rare day off that many use to give or attend wedding receptions.

“It’s the biggest day of the year,” one waitress at 88 Palace, a dim sum restaurant under the Manhattan Bridge, said in Mandarin. “It’s grueling, but I come mentally prepared.”

Thousands of Fujian immigrants arrive each Thanksgiving in New York from across the country, to celebrate at dozens of receptions held in banquet halls and dim sum parlors throughout the city’s Chinese-American communities in downtown Manhattan, as well as Brooklyn and Queens.

It is a day chosen out of convenience. Many Fujianese immigrants work in buffets and takeout restaurants, and so the holiday is the one when many can close their doors and share their time together.