Thanksgiving is a guy’s holiday. In theory, it’s a national
appreciation for our blessings. But in practice, the day is devoted
to activities beloved by every red-blooded American man. The day is
about eating gluttonously. The day is about watching football on
TV. And the day is about dozing off on the sofa in a
late-afternoon, tryptophan-induced nap.
Thanksgiving is a guy’s holiday. In theory, it’s a national appreciation for our blessings. But in practice, the day is devoted to activities beloved by every red-blooded American man. The day is about eating gluttonously. The day is about watching football on TV. And the day is about dozing off on the sofa in a late-afternoon, tryptophan-induced nap.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it’s so simple in its basic concept. It doesn’t require its celebrants to waste endless hours shopping for gifts like certain December holidays oblige us to do. Unlike Easter, Hanukkah and Christmas, it has no religious requirements to debate points of dogma over. Unlike Valentine’s Day, it contains no guilt factor requiring guys to purchase bouquets of roses and boxes of chocolates to verify their true love for their ladies. Unlike Halloween, it doesn’t require wearing idiotic costumes. Unlike the Fourth of July, it doesn’t demand dangerous accessories like fireworks or once-a-year displays of patriotism. Unlike St. Patrick’s Day, Columbus Day and Cinco de Mayo, it doesn’t create a pseudo-cultural experience for a specific American ethnic group.
Instead, Thanksgiving takes holiday celebrating to its purest level. It commemorates an activity that the majority of Americans enjoy doing on a regular basis – and that is … EATING!
Of course, there’s the “let’s all appreciate what we’ve got” component to Thanksgiving Day. And for the good of our souls, that’s an important element to the holiday. We Americans in the 21st century tend to be so obsessed acquiring material stuff that we tend to forget to express our genuine gratitude for the good fortune that flows to us. Thanksgiving helps us remind ourselves that we Americans are truly blessed. But after saying a quick grace over the dining room table, most of us wish to get down to the main business of the day – and that is … EATING!
Like pretty much all other holidays, Thanksgiving surrounds itself with a cloud of fabricated mythology. Most people think the celebration started with a bunch of Pilgrims and Native Americans buddying-up together one autumn day for a Massachusetts colony chow-down. But the true origin of Thanksgiving isn’t the quaint Norman Rockwell images expressed on Hallmark greeting cards.
Thanksgiving started with a 19th-century American poet and feminist author from New England named Sarah Josepha Hale. One of Hale’s claims to fame was writing the children’s poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” But it was her job as chief editor of the journal Ladies’ Magazine that made possible our famous fourth-Thursday-in-November holiday.
Although several New England states celebrated an annual feast day to express gratitude, most of America in the mid-19th century had no such holiday. In 1846, Hale began a campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. She published articles in her popular women’s magazine proposing the holiday and its spiritual benefits. She wrote letters to several U.S. presidents encouraging them to establish a national holiday devoted to showing appreciation for our abundant blessings. Presidents Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan all turned down her proposal.
During the dark days of the American Civil War, Thanksgiving was born. Abraham Lincoln read Hale’s correspondences. He saw tremendous political benefit in establishing a new national holiday devoted to expressing thanks for our blessings. Lincoln realized that Thanksgiving Day was a non-controversial way to help unite a divided nation around a common feast. In 1863, President Lincoln gave his backing to Congress to establish the first nation-wide celebration of Thanksgiving. Since then, the holiday has evolved into the special day of binging we all know and love.
Even though it’s my favorite holiday, I’m a bit disturbed by what Thanksgiving has become. Gratitude now gives way to gobble-down gluttony. OK. I’ll confess I’m as gastronomically guilty as anyone for overstuffing myself on the victuals set before me. (Thank God for Alka-Seltzer.) But as my stomach fills with an old-fashioned, home-cooked meal of turkey and all the trimmings, my heart fills with appreciation for the men and women who give America its cornucopia.
I’m thankful for the farmers and ranchers who grow the grain and raise the meat and poultry. I’m thankful for the migrant workers who spend their days in the fields tending and picking the crops. I’m thankful for the people who process our nation’s vast quantity of cuisine by packaging it in cans and boxes and bags so American shoppers can gather it off supermarket shelves.
Here in the South Valley with our thousands of acres of farms and ranches, food-production is a part of our California culture. It’s good for us to give thanks to the Creator of our abundant blessings. But this Thursday, let’s also be genuinely grateful to the millions of hands across America producing the food that fuels our daily lives.
