Why Thanksgiving is Great!
The main reason that I love Thanksgiving is that it is not overly commercialized like to many other holidays. Halloween is quite possibly the worst, as it has no other redeeming qualities, and Christmas unfortunately falls pretty deep into the category. Thanksgiving, on the other hand, is mostly commercialism free.
Some will argue that parades on Thanksgiving are all about commercialism. After all, why would the mega stores sponsor a parade if they didn’t expect it to be good advertising? To this I offer a simple response: I don’t watch parades very much. Since they are not part of my tradition, that means that they don’t impact my holiday.
Secondary to this lack of marketing comes the fact that Thanksgiving is all about family. (Or, at least it has been historically. The family will be mostly separated this year.) I remember Thanksgiving when I was a kid. We would sit around card tables, at counters, and (for the elders) an actual dining room table. My maternal side is quite large, so eating space was always at a premium. Foods were the typical American fair of yams, stuffing, fruit salads, and turkey.
Always there was an absolutely huge bird (typically in the twenty-pound range). Of course that bird would go into the oven no later than 6:00 AM. We heard every year that turkey cooking must be done early and thoroughly to make it good. It took me a while as an adult to realize that turkey is actually quite a moist bird. It also took me a while to realize that Thanksgiving dinner didn’t have to occur at 2:00 PM.
Not that I’m complaining, mind. Somewhere up in the clouds is a kindly old woman who would gladly send a spiritual spoon to wrap my knuckles if I appeared to be ungrateful.
After dinner there was plenty of digestion time (2:00 PM, remember). Cards would slide across the table, adults would drink beverages, and football would wrap up on the television. Eventually we would get to the second feast, which contained something like sixty-five pies. Eating in our family was a very serious affair. The best recipes were passed on, and we remembered the women that had died by their prowess in the kitchen.
Full to the point of bursting, bored with playing inside, and without the raft of technological gizmos that help parents today, we children would often drop off the map at around 7:00. After all, one could sleep happily knowing that a day of leftovers was coming. (Note, we did not madly rush out to stores for the best deals.)
But Where’s the Thanks?
Honestly, despite the pre-meal Grace, thanks were never a large part of our Thanksgiving. We were grateful to those that did the cooking, but the purification of the holiday by spiritual improvement was very understated. Sure, everyone was thankful for the four days off of work, but they got just as excited about Labor Day.
For me, the idea of giving thanks has never been associated with Thanksgiving. We have enough, and are thankful for that fact throughout the year. We use the day of Thanksgiving for a family event and tournament eating. Christmas and Easter are the spiritual holidays in the year.
In Conclusion
Here’s to a happy Thanksgiving in the way that you choose to celebrate it. I will be smoking a kosher brined turkey, and will undoubtedly love it.
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