Thanksgiving 2010
"Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year. To the honest man,
it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow."
--- Edward Sanford Martin (1856-1939),
U.S. editor and publisher
Now that age 60 is on my horizon--- more accurately, up the street a couple of blocks--- I've started thinking a bit more about Thanksgiving's meaning (as opposed to its menu). Of course, my thoughts about any topic tend to present themselves in the same way as those little white balls with the weekly lotto numbers, so here's some random observations about the Thanksgiving holiday that started rolling around in my skull this last week.
I think everybody's familiar with the origin of the holiday, when the
Pilgrims celebrated their first harvest by holding a feast and inviting
the neighbors. They may not have called it Thanksgiving, and I guess it
didn't have to have spiritual overtones, but let's face it: the
Mayflower didn't book a random bunch of cruise enthusiasts.
Most of these folks took the trip to escape religious persecution and
just about everything they did had spiritual overtones. It's
pretty much agreed that the purpose of this celebratory "harvest
festival" was to thank God for getting them through a rough voyage and
providing them with a good crop, and no matter what they called
it, history's acknowledged it as the first Thanksgiving, since it led to
later, and eventually, annual national days of thanks.
So I think I'm safe in saying that Thanksgiving can be considered a
religious holiday, even though it's not as overtly so as Christmas and
Easter. Ostensibly it's a day where we pause, take a deep breath, and
thank God for all the blessings He's given us, both as a nation and as
individuals. Consequently, you'll have to endure my tendency break out
the soap-box when it comes to the true meaning of these kinds of
holidays. Honest, I'm not trying to be preachy... it happens whether
I try or not.
Like Christmas, the original purpose or spirit of the celebration might
be hard to discern in the current culture. When a holiday's name is as
short and to the point as "Thanksgiving", it's hard to pretend you're
unclear on the concept, but somehow the meaning can still be watered down. My
impression is that in the current popular culture, the Thanksgiving
mission is accomplished as long as you find some things to say "thanks"
for, without giving that thanks to anyone in particular.
If we were checking the old Thanks-o-Meter every year, we'd probably see
some impressive numbers for the four-day holiday. Thanksgiving is one of
those tricky holidays that's determined by a day of the week rather than
a specific calendar date: it's always on a Thursday. And once the
general populace
started getting that Thanksgiving Thursday off from work, they all got
together one night and decided that it wasn't worth coming back to work
on Friday, and that's been the case ever since. Thanksgiving's unique
that way... on any other, date-driven holiday like the Fourth of July or
Christmas or Elvis' Birthday, if the weekday on which it falls is a
Tuesday or Thursday, it's an unspoken agreement among workers to take
the Monday or Friday off. In fact, they spend much of the preceding
work-week formulating the excuse to take the extra day. With
Thanksgiving, it's understood and official. My theory is that it's
because Thanksgiving is also the day where it's officially okay to cook
more for one meal than any of the participants can possibly eat in one
day... and also officially okay give it a shot anyway. Consequently, the Friday
following Thanksgiving is needed for extra digestion time, and to
address the serious issue of leftovers and how they'll be prepared and
distributed in the next couple of weeks.
All material copyright 2009 Chuck Thornton