I was surprised when some co-workers wished me "Happy Holidays" on Wednesday instead of Happy Thanksgiving. I thought at first it was further horrible extension of Christmas and other winter holidays backwards towards autumn (my town and some folks' Christmas lights have been up for 2 weeks), paving over my favorite holiday with a generic holiday-smeary tarmac, so I responded back to each, "Happy Thanksgiving!", defiantly attempting to keep it as a separate celebration. They each responded with smiles and/or Happy Thanksgivings themselves. Later on Mastodon, though, I read several anti-Thanksgiving posts which center on its past with the Puritans/Pilgrims and how those same colonizers were terrible to the locals who had helped them. I don't think of the holiday as being so bound to the past. My family never wore black hats with buckles or otherwise venerated Pilgrims. Moreover, it only became a national holiday during the Civil War! Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it after "the editor of the popular
magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book,
Sarah Josepha Hale, campaigned for a national Thanksgiving Day to promote unity." So it's pro-Union (anti-Confederate) AND proto-feminist -- there were plenty of folks back then who thought women shouldn't be in publishing (even women's magazines), much less making a fuss by campaigning for anything. Mainly, I think of Thanksgiving as a very in-the-present thing: I
am thankful for so much that is good in my life. Yes, there are serious problems in the world, and I and my life are not perfect, but it's good and heartening to celebrate some good things with my friends/family.
I get that for some folks, these benefits doesn't override its origins. I wonder if that's part of the drive behind the "Friendsgiving" term, although I think it's mainly about celebrating with friends/chosen family when you don't have blood relatives (or they aren't as congenial / available).
I got to bed early Wednesday night and baked a harvest pie from scratch Thursday morning and did a bunch of chores not gotten to during my earlier work-a-thon. My sister and I never really had a Thanksgiving meal per se, but we had warm pie on the sunny deck and tasty stuffed peppers and brussel sprouts later on, leaving the green bean casserole to be made another day (we made some a few weeks ago just because we wanted some -- it's not just a holiday casserole for us). My sweetheart and his wife and other love came by later with cake. Friday I worked a couple hours in the morning, and had the rest of the day off, and got some more chores done.
My sister and I also listened to a podcast episode yesterday as we puttered in the kitchen. I've been listening to a "Get Sleepy" podcast some evenings as I wind down, catching up on back episodes, and had saved "
A Cozy Friendsgiving" for this weekend, about four apartment neighbors getting together with a holiday potluck. Some of the episodes are indeed sopor-soothing, and I've saved some as favorites, but this was another one that was "Really? REALLY?" as we listened to it -- we kept listening to it as a sort of horror story, although I am quite sure the writers did not intend it as such, with one Southern guest being snide about the hostesses' "fancy New England relish" (homemade cranberry sauce -- fine to bring your own from a can on a plate, but don't be a jerk about it!) and then our realizing that the hostess had told her neighbors to show up at a certain time that afternoon with their lovely dishes hot from the oven ... while her turkey had
an hour and a half to go in the oven, and she clearly thought they were just supposed to sit around with wine while their handmade cherished dishes sat there getting stone cold and possibly unsafe. The episode ended with them waiting in awkward silence (well, there was background music)! Hahaha. We laughed a lot.
I hope you all had a better celebration than that, or at least will have some rest and recuperation this weekend.
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