This Thanksgiving season has had a very strange vibe to me what with the "true" story of the Pilgrims on the History channel and the whole month of November being dedicated to cooking turkey on the Food network, I've almost lost my appetite. One of the Twin Cities daily papers is supposed to have 48 advertising inserts in it and weighs about 5lbs today, to get people ready for "Black Friday". Well I'm off to the farm now, to have a bit of family fun. I have much to be thankful for and I'll try to think of what it is on the way out to the Prairie.
busiest shopping day of the year in america is the day after thanksgiving. i'm happy to say that i'd completely forgotten the holiday (thanksgiving, not shopping day) existed this year, until people started mentioning it to me.
Happy Thanksgiving all. This will be my first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian, but that won't stop me from having fun with my relatives -- all 12 of us in one house! I'm just glad my mother is acommodating.
I got here just in time to see Connor for a few minutes before his other grandpa came for him. My brother Sam hasn't shown up yet, He worked a ten hour late shift yeserday so I don't know if he'll be here until later on when my other brother gets back from his inlaws. It was just three of us for dinner. I gave Connor a plastic Nativity set and a whole bunch of model animals to go with them. He didn't want the cat at first because he already had one, but then he decided it was fun to have " two of 'em", like the two chickens and the two lambs. One of my favorite things about Christmas as a kid was setting up the Nativity Scene and I thought he would appreciate having less breakable figures them the ceramic ones my mom painted. My sister and brothers would arrange and rearrange our original Nativity set, most of the figures have suffered errosion. He's not aware of he meaning behind Christmas but I'm sure it won't be long before he figures it out. I'm sort of watching "Babe", if you dyed the big gray cat black, it would be a dead ringer for my Butch cat.
Happy Thanksgiving! I've been at a friend of the family's for 10 hours so I've been eating turkey and mashed potatoes all day. We played bingo and I didn't win once. My sister won 5 times, I think she cheated. They were planning their shopping trip for Black Friday and it was like a military operation, they had to be up by 3am and at certain stores right when they opened to be one of the first 200 customers that got a free gift card and most sales are over by 11am so they had to plan their morning almost down to the minute. I would go shopping if they had night owl sales instead of early bird sales although the big cities this year started their sales at midnight instead of 5am, if all goes well maybe it will go nationwide and I can shop next year. Also, its called Black Friday because any store with its finances in the red will be in the black because of all the shopping done that day.
Thanksgiving Day seems to resemble our own Australia Day - the date that the white invaders first kicked off the frontier war that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Aborigines and the abuse and relocation of many more.
I suppose... Although Thanksgiving is a holiday in the States where you are supposed to remember that it was the Natives who saved the colonists rear ends... And the whole turkey thing... And it being about harvest... and the lack of fireworks... and the medal thing... You know, maybe while it could be viewed in the light that it marks European colonization, it could also be viewed as a time to give thanks for what we have and to remember that there was a brief brief time when cooperation and fellowship existed between the two peoples... You know, I suppose that it would be Columbus day that would most resemble Australia day when I think about it. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, let us enjoy and be thankful for what we all have, and be mindful of those who are in need...
I thought Thanksgiving was some sort of descendant/ distant cousin of the European Thanksgiving. I know about the added historical context - the history of the first colonists and all - and that there are a lot of differences, but the German "Erntedank" ("Harvest-gratitude"?) is around October, when the last harvests are driven in, and is described like this: They take harvested products/food products to church services, offer thanks for the good harvest, have the food blessed, followed by the parish breakfasting on blessed food.
Yes, basically it is a harvest festival. But it wasn't a national holiday until Lincoln made it one. Before then, it was up to the govenors to call for it.
[quote:b4dacc596b="Saccharissa"]I don't think there is a country that doesn't have a harvest festival at some time or other.[/quote:b4dacc596b] We don't have a national or even statewide one.
The UK doesn't have an official one either, Andalusian, but we still have one. Every church in the country has a Harvest Festival sometime in October, and there are plenty of people celebrating harvest in other faiths too.
Someone has made a website about harvest festivals around the world, this page has an Australian one: http://www.harvestfestivals.net/grapefestival.htm
It was a good Thanksgiving for the most part around here. I went home to visit the family. I got to see mysix month old neice again which is always fun. Mom wasn't in the mood to cook this year so instead of the traditional turkey dinner, Dad and I put T-bones on the grill. mmm...steak. The way back to my place was a bit interesting though. A car in front of me got hit by a truck running a red light. I pulled over to make sure everyone was okay not that I could really do much to help if they weren't. The two drivers nearly came to blows so I stood between them while one of the driver's wives called the police. It was interesting to spend the last part of the holiday in the middle of a sea of curses and threats. But all in all a good holiday. Happy late Thanksgiving to everyone.
