There is a holiday that exists between October 31 and December 25 that happens on the fourth Thursday in November. It is a holiday becoming more and more blurred each year with the extravaganza that is Christmas. As soon as the calendar turns over to November 1st, jingle bells start ringing in our ears and the nostalgia of the Christmas season hits with full force.
Why does it seem like that we have forgotten, as a society, that Thanksgiving is a holiday? In my opinion, Thanksgiving is crucial to maintaining the selflessness of our culture, especially when I believe that we have become a more selfish culture in recent years. Now, more than ever, our culture is entirely too obsessed on "I" instead of "we." Everyone concentrates on obtaining more and more, and affluence naturally causes people to become focused on material acquisition: it is undeniable social science. I am not saying that affluence is a bad thing, but Thanksgiving is the one holiday that focuses on bringing us outside of the box that is the 9 to 5, day-to-day process of making money, going home, and starting over again.
It seems as if money continues to become the root of influence of major American holidays. With the popularity of Black Friday sales increasing yearly, with some happening before and during Thanksgiving (not actually on Friday), the economic potential associated with the end of November is overriding the fact that Thanksgiving is still a holiday that deserves our full attention. At the root of Thanksgiving, we have two words: "thanks" and "giving."
Although some people get angry when they hear it, we live in an age of entitlement where everyone believes that the world is not their oyster, but rather life is the waiter that caters the oyster to them. I believe America has forgotten how to be thankful because we live in such a way that it is the social norm for many of us to have things that were considered luxuries in past generations. Being thankful does not mean giving up all the luxuries that we hold near to our hearts, but simply being humble and showing gratitude for those who have provided us with luxuries, respecting the environment that we have been allowed to flourish in, and remembering that everyone does not get to live as well off as we do.
The day after Halloween, thousands of people begin to put up Christmas trees in excitement for the holiday season. As a kid, I always remembered my parents telling me we could not have a tree up until after Thanksgiving, and it took me twenty years of my life to figure out why. My parents emphasized the importance of family and togetherness that Thanksgiving encompassed, and putting up a tree distracted from the fact that Thanksgiving is a significant holiday with deep meaning.
Black Friday has become the starting line of the race for presents, the countdown to Christmas, and the most crucial date of the year for frugal shopping. However, it seems to me that Black Friday overshadows the entire purpose of Thanksgiving. Instead of being thankful we rush to stores the day after Thanksgiving, push other people out of the way in order to put ourselves first, and sometimes resort to acts of incivility or even violence to check off our holiday shopping lists. I don't believe Black Friday is necessarily a bad thing, but year after year it dominates the media and casts a dark shadow over Thanksgiving, which is a time of peace and togetherness. My opinion may irritate some but Black Friday takes the "giving" out of Thanksgiving.
Not to diminish the holiday cheer associated with Santa Claus, eggnog, and Christmas carols, but Christmas is its own holiday, and there are plenty of weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas to celebrate. Thanksgiving is upstaged by Christmas through social media, department stores, and common conversation. Again, it is undeniable social science: people find it more entertaining talk about which presents they hope to receive and the parties they are going to instead of talking about how thankful they are to receive said presents and go to those parties.
This holiday season, I am not asking America to forget about Christmas and all of the end-of-the-year excitement that comes with it — I am not "The Grinch." Instead, I simply ask that Americans remember that Thanksgiving does exist, with good reason. It may be difficult to express gratitude and remember to give back when Christmas is in sight, but as a society, it is an ability that fades each and every year that we fail to acknowledge that Thanksgiving exists for more than just shopping deals. Remember, the pilgrims of this land who created and inspired a dream to which we owe our very existence today would have starved to death were it not for the selfless nature of the Native Americans.
Dare to break the trend this holiday season. Don't let being thankful be a second priority.
