Where’s My Turkey?
It’s only a few days before Thanksgiving here in the U.S. and the only vestige of the holiday that I can find is a small paper turkey sitting in the corner of the receptionist’s desk here at Gentex (my employer). Have we forgotten about that pesky holiday that comes between Halloween and Christmas? The way I see it, Thanksgiving is one of the most American holidays we have (probably relinquishing the most-American-holiday designation to Veteran’s Day or President’s Day), and we’ve relegated its significance to a place holder. Oh yeah, Thanksgiving - that’s the day before Black Friday (the biggest shopping day of the year that puts retailers in the black), right? Do kids still learn about the pilgrims, and how they celebrated their first harvest in the New World, or do we just tell them that Christmas is coming and their parents will only buy them what they want if it’s in the After Thanksgiving Day sale?
Christmas trees went up at Gentex last week. Big Christmas trees. Fifteen-foot, meticulously decorated Christmas trees with toys-for-tots boxes next to them. There were no corporate Thanksgiving decorations. I did receive a notice on my last pay stub that checks will be distributed a day early due to the up-coming Thanksgiving holiday. That’s nice of them. It’s hard to call that Thanksgiving spirit though. But what is Thanksgiving spirit? When was the last time you overheard someone talking about getting into the Thanksgiving spirit? Probably never because holiday spirit seems to be reserved for the Christmas season, and Thanksgiving day is just that - a day, no more, no less. Eat your turkey (or at least watch the over-weight, obnoxious football announcers eat their turkey), enjoy your day (or two) off, and be sure to overspend on Christmas gifts on Friday.
I guess we don’t really have time to be thankful for our things if we’re too busy wanting more of them. Come to think of it, that’s probably the reason we call it Turkey Day… and the reason we trample people the very next day just to save a few dollars. Maybe if we all took a step back and asked, “Do I really need that $50 laptop, and is it worth the black eye I just gave that little girl?” we could start to appreciate how much we have already, or even how much we ate the day before. Maybe we could even appreciate the heritage we’ve been given by men and women who worked so hard that they decided to set aside a whole day in appreciation of the fruits of their labor, the camaraderie and cooperation it took to produce those fruits and the God that gave them the strength and capacity to enjoy it all.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Posted in Beauty
November 20th, 2007 at 7:45 am
I agree that Thanksgiving is largely looked over compared to its neighboring holidays of Halloween and Christmas, but there just isn’t as much fanfare for Thanksgiving as the other two, and never has been. I have no idea whether kids still do Thanksgiving, but you’ll learn soon enough with Broni. The Thanksgiving story has fallen victim to some censorship, though, as historical redaction has tended to focus more on the oppression of the Indians by the pilgrims. A focus on oppression narratives has been very en vogue for a while (cf. why Columbus Day is no longer widely celebrated), which I’ve always thought is absurd. Every culture and society has an oppression narrative. It’s an unfortunate part of human history. Refusing to teach children a cultural narrative (the pilgrims at Thanksgiving) because you think it glorifies their oppression (never part of the Thanksgiving story anyway, mind you) or unfairly portrays the Indians is fetid and lazy scholarship.
President’s Day as the great American holiday, though? Huh? That only adds to the quasi-divinity status of the office of President. Veteran’s Day I could agree with, although the obvious choice seems to be the Fourth of July.
November 20th, 2007 at 10:16 am
I’d give black eyes to three or four little girls for a $50 laptop… J/K.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
In response to Christian, I think it is fine to censor history and teach little kids the pilgrim thanksgiving legend. I do hope that at some point in the education system they learn about the genocide of Native Americans. I know I didn’t learn about it until college, which is a sad indictment of the euro-centric nature of many American history textbooks and classes. Then again, it isn’t surprising given that the victors write history (and have a vested interest in preserving the status quo). Now I will get off my soapbox.
On another topic, I for one will not be shopping on Friday. I tried it a few years ago and literally saw people knocking each other over trying to secure boxes of 99 cent scented candles at Menards (at 5am). Kids were crying, people were screaming, it was crazy. I then had to stand in line for an hour so I could buy a Chinese-made electric drill which broke two months later. That experience got me thinking long and hard about consumerism in America. I’m beginning to believe that having more is not always better.
I do appreciate the intent of the Thanksgiving holiday. A time to pause and express gratitude to God, friends, family, etc. Living in the richest nation in the history of the world, we have a lot to be thankful for.