As we begin the week of Thanksgiving, I want to share five reasons why, in my humble opinion, Thanksgiving is the best holiday of the year.
1. Thanksgiving is both a civic and a religious (inter-religious) holiday. The Pilgrim settlers who celebrated the earliest Thanksgivings were undoubtedly motivated to give thanks by the same Separatist and Puritan faith that brought them to the New World in the first place. When George Washington issued the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789, he began with an acknowledgment of “the providence of Almighty God” and called for a “day of public thanksgiving and prayer,” but did not invoke the traditions of any particular denomination. Thanksgiving has since become a civic tradition, in which people of all religions and no religion express gratitude for one another. Meanwhile, people holding a variety of faith traditions have adopted Thanksgiving as an occasion to express thanks for Divine Providence. In this way, Thanksgiving is a holiday that unites us all in something significant, even during periods of social, political and cultural division.
2. Thanksgiving is a Distinctly (North) American Holiday. Ours is not the only country that celebrates a harvest festival as an occasion for giving thanks. However, we in the United States and our Canadian neighbors have developed a distinct set of traditions surrounding Thanksgiving, including autumn decorations, cornucopias, pumpkins, turkey dinners and football, which make this holiday ours. Canada celebrates Thanksgiving in October. The same holiday was brought by formerly enslaved Americans to Liberia, where Thanksgiving is still celebrated, earlier in November. When I work on a project with someone from another country and mention that Thanksgiving is coming up, I feel some pride when I receive a response like, “Oh, yeah, that time when you Americans disappear for four days.” That’s right. Thanksgiving is ours and we’re proud of it.
3. Thanksgiving Lasts Four Days (at Least). While Thanksgiving Day in the United States is always the fourth Thursday in November, the holiday is really celebrated from that day through the end of the week. The Friday after Thanksgiving has long been understood to be a day off from work and school. It’s been years since most schools have scheduled classes for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. More recently, I have noticed a growing tendency to begin celebrating Thanksgiving even earlier in the week. My son’s high school has taken to holding classes virtually that Monday and Tuesday, knowing that so many students are out of town those days. This is magnificent. Americans notoriously work long hours and take few days off. What a rare and blessed occasion to spend an extended period away from work.
4. Thanksgiving is Celebrated at (Someone’s) Home. Thanksgiving is regularly the busiest occasion of the year for travel in the United States. Americans jam airports, roads and train stations to be with family and friends for this holiday. Airfares are high, and you better have booked your flights well in advance. At the same time, Thanksgiving week is a period of low demand in American hotels. There’s always a room available, and usually at a good rate. Why the discrepancy? People prefer to stay in one another’s homes for this holiday. That’s because this multi-day holiday is all about chilling out at home, whether it’s your home or someone else’s. What better place is there to eat leftover turkey and put your feet up while watching football or binging a TV series? In 2001, my father, my brothers and I watched the entire second season of The Sopranos over a Thanksgiving weekend. It was glorious. (My mother was not pleased. We still owe her a few Hallmark movies.) Thanksgiving is a rare occasion when we actually get to spend time—both “quality time” and old-fashioned quantity time—with the most important people in our lives.
5. Thanksgiving is Unburdened by Commercial Hype and Stress. People relax over Thanksgiving weekend because they can. This is because Thanksgiving remains free from the commercial hype and the stress that has corrupted the rest of the Holiday Season. (I say this notwithstanding Black Friday, a tradition I choose to ignore.) For Thanksgiving, no one is expected to bring the kids to a crowded shopping mall for photos with Santa, hang lights outside the house, thoroughly decorate the inside of the house, mail greeting cards, bake cookies, go back to that crowded shopping mall to buy gifts, ship those gifts on time, attend recitals, attend office parties, attend receptions, listen to the same 50 tired songs on iHeart radio for a month, gain weight (well, some) and run up a credit card balance. Those things lie just around the corner, but they haven’t yet corrupted Thanksgiving, and I pray they never will. Thanksgiving is a holiday we are still free to enjoy.
Therefore, I encourage you all to enjoy this, the best holiday of the year, with your family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving!
Bob Lannan