What Happened to Thanksgiving?

As I was out and about yesterday, I saw it. A plastic Santa Claus in his sleigh pulled by plastic reindeer. It’s mid November, for Pete’s sake! The Halloween decorations haven’t been stored away long enough to collect dust yet. But here was a house already gearing up for a holiday that is six weeks away.

What happened to Thanksgiving???

Okay, I did see one lonely inflatable turkey on that same road. But it seemed dwarfed in comparison to the jolly old elf and his entourage. Thanksgiving gets no respect.

Why? I have some theories.

The original Thanksgiving revolves around the Native Americans and the pilgrims giving thanks for the harvest. But in this country today, how many people understand the importance of harvest anymore? Being a farm girl, I remember the relief in a full hay mow and grain bin. The silo filled with silage. The corn crib bulging with yellow ears. That’s field corn, folks. Not the sweet stuff you buy at a farmer’s market or the grocery store. This stuff is hard and feeds the livestock all winter long. I remember shelves of canned fruit and vegetables in the basement. While before my time, I remember stories of making sauerkraut and smoking hams.

Maybe the reason Thanksgiving has fallen to the wayside is because we’ve become an urban nation. Farms have become commercial endeavors rather than the source of food and income for a family. No one truly understands the concept of giving thanks for a harvest. Back a few decades, if the crops failed, there was no abundant harvest, not enough food for the family or the animals to make it through the winter, no income from excess sold or traded away. So a good harvest that meant a comfortable winter ahead was something to celebrate.

Now we go to the Giant Eagle whenever we want food. Any time of day, any time of year. What the heck is a harvest?

My other theory on the downfall of Thanksgiving as a holiday is sadder and more cynical and I hate to even consider it. But perhaps we’ve lost the ability to be thankful. Are we so presumptuous as to assume we’re going to get what we want when we want it? Are we so used to handing over a piece of plastic and coming home with all of our whims and desires in a shopping bag that we no longer can conceive of being appreciative for the things around us?

Is gratitude becoming extinct?

I hope not.

So, okay, here’re my thoughts on the week before Thanksgiving…don’t go out and buy plastic turkeys to stick in your yard. Instead, think about what’s in your life that you’re grateful for. Make a list. Add one or two things each day to that list. We’ll check back here next Thursday and compare. I’ll start: I’m grateful for a wonderful husband, a comfortable home that we own outright, two sweet furry little cats to cuddle. And news that my friend Mary Alice came through surgery for breast cancer with good lab results.

That’s reason to celebrate for sure.