Thanksgiving: The BEST American Holiday

[Morrigoon]

This is a concept that's been rattling around in my brain for some time. When you break down the holidays, look closely at their commercialism as well as their meaning, and viewed in light of how they are celebrated, Thanksgiving is a standout of a holiday.

I'm not saying it's my favorite, just that, as holidays go, it's probably the best one.

Other holidays have been successfully (to varying degrees) stripped of their meaning or solemn celebration by the engine of commerce. Thanksgiving, however, still seems to retain its original meaning and means of celebration. We celebrate Thanksgiving by gathering together with family, sharing a meal, and giving thanks for the good things we've been given in the past year. It is one of the most widely celebrated holidays, being as it is unbound by religious differences. And it is the most consistently celebrated: northeastern families, southern families, western...doesn't matter. In the end, it is still about getting together and sharing a lavish meal.

Where Christmas has become mostly about buying and receiving gifts, Halloween has been stripped of its spookiness in favor of smiling witches and hoardes of candy. Thanksgiving, despite its football games and talk of Black Friday sales is still, at its heart, about getting together with family and enjoying a communal meal. Somehow, it's managed to retain its solemnity in the face of an economy that strives to capitalize on every holiday.

I must admit, it has probably survived due to its built-in commercial aspect: people must buy food. But somehow, that's okay. Because the commercialism does not, and it seems cannot, interfere with the "point" of the day - the people you dine with, and giving thanks for the bounty of our lives.

Somehow, Thanksgiving retains its purity through the commercial haze. And thus, I feel it deserves the title of "best" American holiday.