Favorite Holiday

This week's Long & Short Reviews prompt asks which are reviewers' favorite holidays. Well, today is a traditional holiday, though it's probably not anybody's favorite. (Veterans of my acquaintance have suggested that, instead of a Hallmark Holiday that causes inconvenience, a grateful nation could just send them money. Though of course those who have a living veteran in the family get to do something special with or for that individual, today. Treasure the moments.)

Mine is Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a real holiday tradition with ancient roots that are universal enough that it doesn't violate anybody's religion. 

In some whole-Bible Christian circles, this makes Thanksgiving almost unique. Most of the holidays on the Christian and even Jewish calendars were not observed in Bible days. Some people feel that Christmas is as Pagan as Valentines Day; Jesus was presumably born in autumn, when taxes were collected, and there probably wasn't any snow, and although Nicholas of Myra was a real man he didn't even look like our cartoonish version of Santa Claus, and both Jesus and Nicholas (people who preach this way don't call him "Saint" Nicholas) were dragged in to give Christians an excuse to celebrate popular Pagan holidays. One of my father's friends used to preach that even birthdays shouldn't be celebrated, because the only person whose birthday was celebrated, in the Bible, was King Herod and surely he was not meant to be a good example. And these people's observation of Resurrection Sunday is intended not to look or sound much like what most of us know as Easter, either.

The ancient Israelites observed Passover. Easter occurs, on the calendar, around the same time as Passover because Passover observance was such a big part of the week of the Crucifixion. Jesus ate the Seder with the disciples. So, should Christians eat the Seder? Wasn't that part of the old sacrificial law we no longer observe? Some whole-Bible Christians used to have very strong opinions about this. My parents were not in the lamb-killing group. 

They also observed a week-long festival that is still known today as the Jewish Holidays. These holidays included a day of fasting and atonement, which Christians prefer to believe Jesus took care of, and also a harvest feast when families gathered together. 

Our Anglo-Israelite friends used to believe that one piece of evidence that the British tribes were Lost Tribes of Israel was that only the US, the UK, and Canada observe Thanksgiving even along the simple, even sketchy, lines laid out in the Bible. Actually some other countries observe an autumn Thanksgiving festival of some sort. 

Also, national Thanksgiving observances are not primarily religious observances but thanks for events in more recent national history. Passover was a day of national thanksgiving, though observed in the spring. Purim and Hanukkah are days of thanksgiving. Other countries give thanks for events in their history at other times of year. People around the world give thanks for good harvests at whatever time of year their primary cash crops are harvested. 

Nevertheless, the essence of Thanksgiving is celebrating gratitude to a Higher Power that has made and preserved us. No stricter-than-thou whole-Bible Christian of my youth could debunk that.

So, what is the traditional observance of Thanksgiving in my family?

1. Extensive travel is not expected, but Thanksgiving is an occasion to visit or entertain the oldest member of the family who lives reasonably near and feels up to it.

2. People make lists of things for which they give thanks. Reading the lists aloud at dinner is optional.

3. Thanksgiving dinner does not have to be an occasion for gluttony. If multiple households are eating together it should be a potluck dinner. Each person should try to take somewhere between a teaspoon and a tablespoon of everything. Some sort of bird is roasted. (Turkey is traditional for big gatherings because it's a big bird, not because it was eaten at the first Thanksgiving, which it may not even have been. Smaller wild fowl, and fish, were probably on the first Thanksgiving menu. For families who can make one convenient meal of a chicken, chicken is fine.) Nuts are served as a vegan protein alternative. Home-grown and home-canned fruits and vegetables are on the table. Cornbread, pumpkin pie, and gingerbread are baked with the bird(s). The goal is for everyone to sample a rich variety of local produce, not to feel so exhausted by eating that they can't enjoy the rest of the day.

4. Pumpkin is obligatory, because one of our ancestors moved from North Carolina to Indiana in 1862. Indiana was no longer frontier country but it was very rural; people lived mostly on what their land produced. The family survived the winter of 1862-63 eating mostly pumpkins. 

5. Thanksgiving songs are sung. "Harvest Home," "We Gather Together," and "Now Thank We All Our God" are obligatory. Some child or other will probably sing that idiotic rhyme about how the turkey ran away before Thanksgiving Day, saying they'd make a roast of him if he should stay, and then the corn, the potatoes, and the pumpkin ran away too...Other songs may be sung, and if the weather is classic November weather the whole afternoon can be passed singing around the fire.

(Speaking of fires, my very Green, very conservative mother thought it was especially festive to eat Thanksgiving dinner off paper plates and throw them into the fire, with the nutshells. This still leaves pots, pans, and flatware to be washed. This is still the hostess's job, because what hostess believes anyone else is capable of getting her dishes clean without her supervision? Being assigned a position in the dishwashing crew is, however, an honor, and gives the chosen persons extra time to talk with the hostess.)

6. But, most years, the weather is suitable for a good brisk walk. Some years it's feasible for the children to have a treasure hunt. 

7. Some years, however, nature dictates snow sculptures and snowball fights.

8. Foreign-born acquaintances who have nothing to do on the Thanksgiving weekend, especially  students, may be invited to share the feast. There is a price. They have to tell about celebrations of gratitude in their country.

It would be in the spirit of Squanto and William Bradford to share some part of a Thanksgiving feast with people from a different ethnic background. The standard holiday now lasts for four days.

9. Some years the Thanksgiving weekend is an appropriate time for major home maintenance projects.

10. Thanksgiving traditionally lasts at least three days. It's Thanksgiving Friday, not Black Friday. However, if people want to go shopping together, that's appropriate too. If enough food is left over, a Thanksgiving Friday dinner may be cooked and shared with different guests. If money is, non-perishable food may be bought and donated.

The historic American story of the Pilgrims, and Plymouth Plantation, and the Wanponaug people, is not really part of my family's history or Thanksgiving tradition, though it's a part of US history everyone should know. I don't know how many families in the US have their own traditional Thanksgiving stories. Probably more families should. If their ancestors came from a place that had a Thanksgiving holiday tradition, that could be part of their story.