Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

Time for Thanksgiving!

11 Written by Keith on October 31, 2009 – 12:55 pm

 

Halloween is behind us.  It’s time for another of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving.  The greatest thing about Thanksgiving is that it is the least commercialized of all the major holidays. It’s a time for family to get together, partake in simple pleasures, and give thanks for their lives.  Yes, stores are selling Thanksgiving decorations, but it is not nearly as pervasive as what we see for Christmas, Halloween, or Easter.  I bought a few simple decorations years ago, and that was it.  The puritanical roots of our modern idea of Thanksgiving has no doubt precluded, to some extent, our tolerance for large corporate meddling. After all, I doubt the Wampanoag Indians would have had plastic turkeys wearing pilgrim hats festooning their long houses.  Likewise, my European descendent’s were probably way too concerned about surviving to consider which scent was appropriate for their holiday candles.  No, Thanksgiving was, and should always remain, a time for the simple things, not ill considered corporate cheesiness.  There are exactly three things that make Thanksgiving special: family, food and cultural history.

 

Disclaimer:  I am by no means intentionally glossing over some of the less savory aspects of the relationships between the Pilgrims and the Indians.   The Wampanoags were in the middle of a war with neighboring tribes and the Puritains were in the middle of plotting how to spread Christianity as quickly as they could.  Politics were in play and the scene was not the idyllic one we see in Hollywood movies.  Nevertheless, we can appreciate the event.

 

Family:

 

We live in a country where families move apart.  It wasn’t always that way, but with the Eisenhower Interstate System our country opened up (honestly, that’s seriously what was responsible for our migration habits) and we began moving around freely.  And air travel becoming cheap really took us far from home.  I have family in just about every state, with no state taking the lions share.  My twin sister and I haven’t lived in the same state since high school.  My big sister lives in California and I only see her once every few years.  Whenever we get together it’s good reason for Thanksgiving.  Just to have family present is special.  Like the Pilgrims were starved of food we are starved for family.  Thanksgiving happens to be the time we’ve set aside to make a special effort at reunion.  That alone makes the Holiday tops in my book.

 

Food:

 

What would Thanksgiving be without food?  As a matter of fact the whole reason Thanksgiving falls in Autumn is that it was originally a harvest festival.  Many tribes celebrated a harvest festival, Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and of course the Wampanoags (who were an Algonquin speaking people), to name a few.  Native traditions dictated that during the festival they were to help the helpless. The first Thanksgiving, and the reason we celebrate it at all, is considered to be the feast that took place in 1621 when the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims sat down together for that year’s harvest festival (with the Wampanoags providing most of the food).  Over the years the menu has changed a bit (Venison and Fowl were served in 1621) but our appetites have not.

 

American History:

 

Another reason Thanksgiving is so great is that, unlike other holidays, the original meaning of the event has not changed drastically.  We don’t necessarily celebrate the harvest, but we do celebrate what the harvest represents, bounty.  It’s the only holiday that comes directly from Native American traditions. We should all be mindful that this is an American holiday, and why it is.  Obviously it’s little consolation to the Indians that we celebrate this small bit of their history every year (especially since most of us don’t even know it), but we should at least be appreciative that not all was lost.  It is not necessarily a religious holiday, but you can thank God or a creator if you want.  The point is to just be thankful; it should be thanks for something and, if you want, to something.

 

Thanksgiving is an interesting holiday.  It’s American and, like the rest of American history, it is at the same time proud and somewhat idealized; neither of the original participants of that first Thanksgiving were particularly forthright with their intentions.  However, the core significance of the event is true.  They were celebrating a successful crop and they were holding to their traditions of helping their helpless neighbors.  The religiously fanatical Pilgrims were not all bad (or good – matter of perspective) and neither were the warring Indians.  They were simply living products of their time and traditions.  We can hope that today we can celebrate the harvest without the harsh realities that confronted our Puritan ancestors and our Indian cousins.  We hope we can fulfill the traditions of helping the helpless and giving thanks for our bounty.