Beaujolais Nouveau: France's version of Thanksgiving?

Last night, on a train ride home from Lyon, I saw a black poster with the words, "Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!"

Practically salivating for a fall wine festival, I turned my head around as the train pulled away trying to get more details. Was it a festival? Was it a party? What was it??

Thanks to the Internet, I've learned that Beaujolais Nouveau is a wine that's allowed to be sold in France at 12:01 on the third Thursday of November each year. From what I read, the race to get a bottle first and throw a party during the earliest hours of Thursday has become huge. The wine itself is very young, sweet, and is as close to white wine as you can get for a red wine. It's known as a party wine, not something with which you'd spend minutes savoring the flavor.

Oh, and it was either sold out at Géant, or they just don't sell it at hypermarkets, because I couldn't find any.