Federal holidays that celebrate events tend to be fixed. Thanksgiving is always celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every November. Independence Day is always July 4th and New Year’s Day is January 1—you certainly can’t fudge the calendar on those days. Labor Day is always the first Monday of September. Veterans Day is always November 11 regardless of the day of the week.
Federal holidays that celebrate people seem to have fallen victim to a preference for weekend extension. Washington and Lincoln have been completely obliterated. Now it’s just Presidents’ Day, always on a Monday. Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, January 15th, is only celebrated on the 15th if it’s a Monday. Columbus Day, originally October 12th, is now only on Mondays where it is celebrated. In some states it’s totally ignored due to political correctness. I guess celebrating people is not quite as fixed as events. But this is about Thanksgiving, although sadly, some attribute it as Turkey Day. Just google Thanksgiving images and see what pops up.
Thanksgiving is a unique holiday in that it doesn’t celebrate an individual(s) or the importance of an event. It celebrates an idea, even though it has experienced metamorphosis over the years. It used to be that there was considerable remembrance of the Mayflower sojourners on the shores of Patuxet (Plymouth Colony) nearly 400 years ago. Attention was given to the kindness of the Wampanoag people who helped the “saints and strangers” survive their harsh beginnings and shared their blessed table. Thanksgiving celebrations during harvest times were common enough in the seventeenth century, and thankfulness was always directed to God, the provider of the goodness bestowed upon them.
I wonder to whom atheists give thanks, or maybe they just don’t. Never having been one, I can’t speak from personal experience. Believers in God still manage to hold on to at least some of the early heritage, but our secular world that once remembered the Pilgrims and Native Peoples has pretty much abandoned all resemblance to its beginnings. Football, cartoons of turkeys trying to escape the inevitable, and blitz shopping seem to have replaced the original meaning of the day.
The overwhelming barrage of advertising makes us much more aware about the degree to which people succumbed to the enticements of bargains. Have we replaced a celebration of the goodness of God with mobs of shoppers attacking shops and malls for that pre-Black-Friday-good-deal of the century? Obviously there are enough participating consumers for businesses to forego closing shop for a day, which formerly gave their employees time to be with their families. That’s really a tragic loss for civilization. Is there nothing left that is more valuable than separating frenzied shoppers from their wallets or credit cards on fire from sliding through machine slots?
No, God does not fall off of His throne if you go shopping on Thanksgiving. My intent was not to inject readers with shoppers guilt—well, maybe a little. I mostly want to redirect attention to the point of celebrating. Give some thought to the origins and meaning of the day. You have probably already made plans, but just in case you have a bit of extra umph and some cash, consider sharing your good fortune with someone who doesn’t. Invite someone to your table who might be alone. Send a special monetary offering to a legitimate mission that feeds the poor (I know a few if you need suggestions). Give some of your time and energy into serving. Really, you will be so happy you did. Remember to give thanks to the Holy One and have a blessed Thanksgiving.