What Ever Happened To Thanksgiving?

While out grabbing a few groceries at Publix last week, I couldn't help but notice that they were already playing Christmas music.

Likewise, if you've driven past Green Hills Mall, then you may have noticed that they've had their Christmas lights up all month.

Commercials advertising Christmas gifts and sales are already littering our televisions.

What ever happened to Thanksgiving? The turkeys? The pilgrims? The giving thanks?

Thanksgiving is becoming (has become?) the forgotten holiday; it seems to me. I have no proof of this claim -- only my own observations. But I think it's safe to say that it has become the neglected middle-child of the holiday season (Halloween - Thanksgiving - Christmas).

Why is this? For some reason this question been bothering me the past few weeks. Is it because the narrative that has defined Thanksgiving in the past is becoming less and less believable? That is, as historians rightly continue to describe the atrocities committed against the Native Americans, has contemporary American culture given up on the whole notion of Thanksgiving? Maybe. But I think that there is still something to be said for that First Thanksgiving and remembering it. For living through the winter, for learning how to raise crops, for a large harvest, and, perhaps most importantly, for relationships with the Other in the pilgrim's colonial society -- these all seem like admirable things to have celebrated and indeed given thanks for.

Which brings me back to my question: Why are we neglecting Thanksgiving more and more? I would suggest the answer is that Thanksgiving is not profitable. Halloween and Christmas indulge our consumerist desires and are therefore the darlings of our American culture. But Thanksgiving is rather straight forward: turkey, dressing, giving thanks. Unless one raises poultry, there isn't much money to be made off of Thanksgiving.

But I would suggest that the simplicity of Thanksgiving, as the Shakers identified long ago, is itself a gift. Sitting down at the table with loved ones is a 'simple gift,' for which we should all give thanks to God.

So by giving thanks for the simple gift of table friendship, we can all critique the consumerist driven holiday season.

And we can also thankfully anticipate the upcoming Advent season of the Prince of Peace.

Secondary post themes:

1. Finding ways to befriend and celebrate with the Other in our own society.
2. The problem of Christmas being little more than a 'secular' consumerist holiday.
3. The Eucharistic themes that emerge from the notion of giving thanks around our tables.