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It’s Thanksgiving, but I know not everyone who follows me celebrates it. So I’m splitting this into two sections:
For those who celebrate Thanksgiving:
- What do you think of the holiday?
For those who don’t celebrate Thanksgiving:
- Do you think it’s strange how the Internet allows us to see all of these holidays celebrated around the world?
- Does this bring us closer together as a species?
- What is your favorite holiday from another country or culture?
Legends of Windemere 
I celebrate Thanksgiving. I used to love it because of my huge family. We’d get together and hold a penochle tournament afterward. There aren’t many of us left, and now we eat and part ways. Sadly, I think it’s on the way out. My daughter has to work starting at 6:00 tonight. Christmas binge shopping has decreed there is no time to be thankful.
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Never played penochle. Honestly, I’m not even sure what it is. All I knew as a kid is that it sounded funny and I liked saying the word.
I know what you mean about family, but for us it’s more distance. People are scattered and the family seems to be smaller. At least on my side. My wife’s family live on the other side of the state, Arizona, Boston, and Florida. Hate the Christmas binge shopping. We never do it because it feels weird to say ‘I am thankful for family, but you guys have to leave because there is a midnight sale on crock pots’.
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Poor old Thanksgiving is about done for. Commercialism has decreed it as unworthy. Enjoy your day anyway, that’s what I intend to do.
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You too. Guess commercialism is going to start heading for Halloween now.
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Probably, but Halloween has teeth and claws.
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And fangs. Can’t forget the fangs.
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I love this time of year, because we have Thanksgiving in Canada in October, so around this time all I’m thinking about is Christmas and then suddenly my newsfeed gets flooded with Thanksgiving posts and I spend a few minutes totally baffled until I figure out what’s happening.
What do I think of the holiday? It’s fine. My family never made a big deal out of it — it was more an excuse to eat turkey and stuffing than anything else. I do like to stop and think about the things I’m grateful for, but that usually lasts for about a minute, at which point the turkey appears on my plate and I dig in.
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That happened to me this year when I saw a ton of Canadian Thanksgiving posts. Most from American friends, which threw me.
I think the focus on being thankful gets overlooked a lot. Strange since it’s in the name.
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I first found out about Thanksgiving at school (since I went to a part-American school, we had a somewhat different set of holidays etc). I’ve loved it ever since, even after finding out how those nice native Americans who so gracefully helped the pilgrims survive ended up :b
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Yeah. Honestly, I’m seeing more hate on the holiday than love today. It’s been that way with every holiday this year. Nothing but negativity around every one of them.
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Ouch. That sucks 😦
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Charles, Thanksgiving used to be all about family when I was a kid, and everyone lived close by. Now even without huge family gatherings, it’s still is a holiday to be long distance thankful. Miss the old way though! Happy Thanksgiving!!! Chryssa
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Things definitely have changed. Though I’ve heard of some people using Skype and other technologies to try to close the distance. Work with what you have, I guess.
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What do you think of the holiday? Since I celebrate Thanksgiving I love the holiday. It is a time to gather with family and since I enjoy cooking, gives me an opportunity to turn a perfectly good turkey into something that everyone asks, “What the heck is this?”
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I’ve never been good with cooking turkey, which I think is a family trait. Back when it was only the wife and myself, we’d do Cornish hens. I always got a better taste out of those.
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I’ve ruined those too.
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Being Canadian, my family and I celebrate it a month earlier. I love it! Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy… There’s nothing like cranberry sauce on the side while we gorge on the joyous meal. Typically, we also say a prayer before eating, then after the meal we’ll have a round-table and talk about the things we’re thankful for. It really is a great holiday!
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Sounds like fun. Never did a prayer, but we’re Jewish and that’s done every Friday. Supposed to anyway. I have to admit that I’m always caught off guard by saying grace. 🙂
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I caught my parents off guard when we started saying grace a couple of years ago. But we’re used to it now and it relaxes everyone just before the meal. Highly recommend!
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Not really a Jewish thing. There’s the Sabbath every Friday, which is the equivalent. I think Orthodox do it every night, but that’s not me. Then again, everyone in this house is running on a different schedule, so most of us end up eating alone until the weekend.
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The internet has been great at introducing us to other cultures and the various holidays they celebrate.I reckon if I claimed Nationality with them all I could holiday every day of he year, oh, that’s right, I already do.
I think it does bring us closer in a way because we now understand more than we ever did.
I don’t favour one holiday over another out there but for me the one to hit is Christmas when I get my greatest joy buying gifts for my loved ones.
Hugs
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Ah, to relax and celebrate every day of the year. I don’t think I really have a favorite holiday. Halloween probably comes close due to the candy and costumes. Not as many TV specials as there used to be.
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I do celebrate the American holiday. I believe in the concept of gratitude and that we should take time for that, while recognizing the irony of the stories about Native Americans aiding Europeans who would quickly turn against them. All the anti-immigrant talk around the Syrian refugees strikes me as especially ugly and cruel at Thanksgiving.
If I could change one thing about it, I think I would combine it with Memorial Day in May so the gratitude could combine with memories of those who are gone. Thanksgiving in November is so overshadowed by Christmas, and a May holiday would give a six-month gap between those big holiday meals and family check-ins.
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Oh, and I learned about Diwali for the first time this year thanks to a friend on the Internet.
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Never heard of Diwali. Is that Hindu?
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Yes, I think so. One of my writer acquaintances is Asian-Indian, so she mentioned the festivities. It’s a “feast of light,” not that different from Christmas, actually.
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I noticed a lot of posts about the Syrian refugee and Thanksgiving thing. Also a bunch about history repeating itself with WWII. I’d actually just make another holiday like the day before or after Thanksgiving. Only because Memorial Day is for those who died in military service, so I think combing them could be a bit odd. Then again, most people think Veterans Day is the same thing instead of being for the living soldiers. Maybe those two holidays should be combined.
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Yes, I think Memorial and Veterans Days should be combined.
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I’m a huge celebrator of Thanksgiving – always a wonderful time for me because of my family growing up, but also I grew up in Plymouth, MA, so it would be hard to avoid Thanksgiving in any event. With regard to holidays in other countries, I am particularly fascinated with Guy Fawk’s Day,
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I can imagine what that town is like around this time of year. Guy Fawkes’ Day is strange here. I think because of ‘V for Vendetta’, he is seen as a ‘hero’ in this country when history paints him more as a terrorist. Honestly, I just find the on-line battles funny on that day.
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