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Giving Thanks

I really don’t understand Thanksgiving. But I think I like it. It’s one of these American holidays that is slowly starting to take over the world (a bit like their take on Halloween) and it seems mostly pagan if slightly religious in connotation. From wikipedia:

The most common view of its origin is that it was to give thanks to the Judeo-Christian God for the bounty of the autumn harvest.
...
As the holiday most associated with family gatherings in the U.S., Thanksgiving is often humorously portrayed in movies and television as an occasion for extended family members to bicker with one another.

But in general it’s a nice tradition: friends and/or family get together to eat enormous quantities of food. There also a great orphan culture to compensate for the vast distances of the States and also the large number of gormless non-US residents (like me). And just like in Britain there are major sporting events (American Football games play early on the day, ostensibly to keep American males from the kitchen) to give the holiday atmosphere (in the UK real football, aka soccer, is on Boxing Day and sometimes even New Year’s Day). And providing this isn’t taken to macho/feminine extremes can be the icebreaker for many celebrations.

Other nice points: in the US it’s often snowing somewhere so it can be considered an unofficial start of the skiing season, and it’s also the official boundary for the start of Holidays when Thanksgiving store decorations morph into Christmas (or other politically correct holiday-ness). This is much better than the steadily diminishing boundaries of Christmas decorations that attack the UK High Street in (it seems like) May.

And finally, different people have different traditions. Danika’s family give thanks on the previous year without the sugary-sweetness of “thank you for my sweetie”. For the last couple of years this has been living on the machaggis.net community, so if you are a friend of our extended clan feel free to join in.

My Thanks for this year are:

  • ibruprofen
  • salt
  • relatives who still make the journey for a good party
  • a good story
  • new neighbours in our neighbourhood
  • having a neighbourhood
  • UNI cards (international phone calls for cents)
  • Paris
  • bridge night
  • curry in Glasgow
  • bike trips
  • two wheels
  • ipods
  • watching movies on the sofa
  • gourmet chef wives (1 will do)

And the tradition also names favourites from December 2004 to November 2005….

What would yours be?

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