We Gather Together To ...

Thanksgiving is an American holiday that we all know, but it's turned into a forced celebration like Christmas. Everyone knows the story of the Puritans and the Indians who helped them survive the winter, and how it was Lincoln's wife (I think) who insisted ol' Abe make it a national holiday. I guess it made for a good early winter break, coming as the sun enters Sagittarius (I'm no astrologer, I just put on airs), a month after Halloween. And it was still probably a good idea when I was growing up as a boy for family celebrations -- most Americans then still living within fifty miles of their hometowns. Now, we live all over the place, and as our population ages, it gets tougher and tougher every year to pull Thanksgiving off. I love the idea of this unique American holiday -- but we're past the commercialized phase, and now we're down to just slogging through it. The relatives I did manage to meet up with all looked very tired. The interesting thing about it remains for me is this -- the day after. No, I'm not talking about Black Friday (the dreadful shopping madness that retailers used to love), but the celebration given that day every year after Thanksgiving by a Native American tribe I covered as a reporter some years ago. The festival on their reservation includes history, crafts, food, and traditional drumming-and-dancing demonstrations -- all the things you'd expect from such an event. No one ever mentioned to me why it's held the day it is -- until I figured it out myself while covering it one year. It just dawned on me -- there are all these Americans for whom this traditional holiday I'd been brought up to think was so wonderful means the exact opposite of what it does to me. And they choose to celebrate their native traditions at a time that should remind us of that difference -- and we never notice. (By the way, one of the displays they're proudest of was the medals their men have won in war -- the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean Conflict, Vietnam, and Desert Storm -- all fighting on "our" side! I left the area well before the current Iraq conflict began, though I'm sure their people are likely in uniform in that now, too.).


LJ orig.: 11/25/06