Thanksgiving

I have decided today that this will be the last thanksgiving that I will be celebrating either with friends or family. Next year, I will be helping in a soup kitchen and give my thanks for all I have and how blessed my life has been so far. I have realized that spending time with family and friends around a table can be done anytime and often, not only around a holiday. It also dawned on me how self- absorbed I have been and what a lousy mate, sister, friend and daughter I have been all those years.

Various myths have surrounded the Thanksgiving holiday. The pilgrims never held a yearly harvest feast nor was the day meant for such lavish table displays. Was there a turkey on the table on that first feast? Maybe … All pilgrims equated wild fowl to turkey. To those puritans, the meaning of thanks was originally a day for prayer and fasting that would be held at any time and such feast would not have been allowed.

The pilgrims did have such a feast in 1621 but it was to celebrate the end of harvest which followed the English harvest festivals, however it was not the beginning of a tradition nor did they repeat it. It was during the American Revolution that the Continental Congress suggested a day of national thanksgiving. Abraham Lincoln appointed a day in 1863 as the last Thursday of November to coincide with the Nov 21, 1621 anchoring of the Mayflower in Cape Cod. However, it was Franklin D. Roosevelt who in 1939 set the date for Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November, which was approved by Congress in 1941.

Thanksgiving has different meanings for many cultures and frankly for many immigrants the holiday doesn’t mean anything as they still hold on to their own cultural celebrations. Some do share in the celebration and give it their own special ethnic twist. The Native Americans resent the holiday as they equate it to betrayal. Ironically the House of Representatives just passed legislation on Nov 13 designing the day after Thanksgiving a Native American Heritage Day to pay tribute to the Injuns' contribution to the United States. The Native American Heritage Day bill encourages Americans of all backgrounds to observe the Friday after Thanksgiving as Native American Heritage Day, through appropriate ceremonies and activities. What a load of crap!


Let’s face it, in my opinion for most Americans of every ethnic background today, Thanksgiving simply represent an excuse for family gathering, eating and wining, which could easily be done every Sunday. Does one takes a minute and really think of what it really means? There are so many people out there suffering and surviving. Wouldn’t the holiday be more pertinent if each of us took time out of their precious schedule and reached to those in need to make them feel truly loved?