You know how everyone talks about "the true meaning of Christmas," and how it's been lost (or at least muted) by all the materialistic fuss? Well, what about "the true meaning of Thanksgiving"? For me, it's been lost in a turkey-scented haze of endless football games and overeating.
This appalls me more than anything because Thanksgiving is, by and large, an American holiday. (oh, and Canadian too, eh?) Most Europeans read about Thanksigiving or hear about it and sort of don't get it. I tried to explain it to my boyfriend (who is Dutch) last year, and I'm not really sure I explained it very well. Yes, the pilgrims came over in that big old ship, made nice with some Native Americans, thanked their lucky stars (and God) that they made it across that long ocean and survived a harsh deadly winter, and had a great big feast of sharing and gratefulness and most importantly, cornucopias. And somewhere in the mix was a guy named Squanto, right?
My explanation might not be great, but this is what most of us learned when were kids. We made the handprint turkeys in our little arts and crafts classes, we dressed up as pilgrims with shiny shoe buckles and as Native Americans with fake feather headresses, and we stereotyped the hell out of Thanksgiving.
It's no wonder, then, that our Thanksgiving holiday causes many foreigners to scratch their heads in puzzlement. More than a couple of times on my travels, I've heard jokes from Europeans, Aussies, and others that Thanksgiving is just what Americans need -- more of an excuse to make ourselves even fatter than we already are, and to sit on those fat asses while we log in hours of a mindless stop-and-go sport that the rest of the world thinks is immeasurably stupid compared to the real football.
So what is it about Thanksgiving that really is redeeming?
Personally, I think it's all about family and togetherness. Maybe we don't pay much attention to each other when the parade or the football games are on, but we do pay attention to each other when we're sitting at the same table. (And all too often, American families don't sit down to the dinner table anymore.)
I think this is important because you need to be reminded about the people who made so many sacrifices to bring you into this world and raise you (if it's your parents), and to be reminded about the people whom you have made so many sacrifices for (if it's your children, whose own personalities may occassionally get lost in an endless sea of soccer practices and ballet recitals and Nintendo Wiis). So to me, that's what Thanksgiving is for.
I read an interesting article about debunking the myths of the first Thanksgiving. The most interesting to me was that many Native Americans may not consider Thanksgiving to be a very happy time at all. Only one generation after the English settlers sat down to "the first Thanksgiving" with the Native Americans, they were at war with each other. In 1637 English settlers killed 700 Pequot men, burning many of them alive in their homes. So much for breaking bread together and making peace and all that.
It's sad, yes. But that's how this world is. The terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the restlessness in Thailand, the plane crashes and car crashes that have all been going on today -- it all attests to the fact that this world slows down and makes peace for no one. Even at the Olympics, a traditional time of international peace, there was the Georgia conflict and who-knows-what-all going on in Kenya and the Sudan. So I think the important thing to take away from Thanksgiving is: we may not all be at peace, and everything might not be perfect, but let's take a moment to be grateful for what we do have. I'm grateful I have my boyfriend alive and fighting his cancer. I'm grateful I have my parents, who have sacrificed so much for me and have always been there when my life has gone rough.
To me, those are the things that Thanksgiving are all about.
Just thought I'd share.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)