The Shifting Nature of our Holidays

In today's blog, since this is Thanksgiving Day, here in our Country, I want to ruminate primarily around what our holiday stories now mean to us. When I was young, it was an important day for families to get together.  Other than the food bought, there was not much commercialization of the day.  That is, more recently, except for the extra-large daily paper with all the ads for the sales on Friday!

In those days it was usually grandparents who gathered members of their family together; there was no TV, so there were no games to watch.  There were relatively few divorces in those days either.  Primarily, it was a day of stuffing oneself and interacting with those you were, like-it-or-not, related to.

This year there were protests by school students regarding Columbus Day as being a day celebrating an event supposedly proceeding the advent of European Pilgrims to the Americas.  The evidence that Columbus did not, "discover the Americas," is overwhelming, should one chose to look at it.  What took place after the arrival of Europeans, and the National effort to cover up what was here is, mostly, an untold story.  Also, pretty ugly!

I have questioned the nature of the Thanksgiving Day previously in my blog.  I am currently reading a book regarding Lewis and Clark's travels across the land to get to the Pacific Ocean on behalf of the government's intention of claiming more of the land and removing the Indians who lived there.

Having read a good deal about those early times in the Americas, the book only adds to the true history underlying the stories we have been told.  The European conquest of the Americas is not a pretty picture; it is little wonder that it has been all prettied up with stories such as the ones children are taught in school regarding this time of the year.

There is now little left of belief in that made-up history, if younger people are now protesting the name, "Columbus Day"!  Essentially, the traditional "Thanksgiving Day" is, also, mostly gone.  However, since it is a recognized National Holiday, (read, "day off,") it is not likely to disappear off the calendar.)

Also, a main reason for not going away, for some years now, instead of focusing on family's getting together on this day, the focus has been on getting people out, on this National day off work, and start their Christmas shopping.  For many years, the focus had been on the following Friday, come to be known as "Black Friday."  (Dictionary.com gives the following explanation of this term: "the 1951 sense "day after Thanksgiving" originally so called from the troublesome traffic caused by shoppers and later re-explained with reference to the use of black ink to record business profits.")

I can think of little else to say about these two days, as I have tried to ignore them for some years now, although I do have fond memories of some large, non-family events I have attended. I think our upcoming year may have some major surprises, so I'm going to do my best to stay calm, and advise everyone else to do likewise.

With that hope, I end this Holiday blog.

Shirley Gallup