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| photo from timeanddate.com |
I have always been bothered by the fact that everyone seems to skip straight from Halloween to Christmas. This year, the Christmas stuff was in the stores even before Halloween! Ridiculous. I never understood why. Then it struck me... a holiday that focuses on being thankful for what one has just doesn't fit into the modern excessive consumer mentality. There is nothing for the companies to market. No costumes, candy, lights, trees, presents, etc. It is the one holiday that doesn't revolve around spending a lot of money. It's about good, home cooked food, not buckets of candy. It's about spending time with your friends and family, not spending tons of money on gifts for everyone and their brother. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas... the real Christmas. Not the capitalistic, commercialized, consumer driven version it has evolved into. But Thanksgiving is simply this... giving thanks. So simple, so beautiful. In this country we live in where we are constantly being bombarded with messages that what we have is not good enough, big enough, or new enough, how important is it to have that one day to reflect. To choose to disregard all those lies and focus on what really matters. To realize how truly blessed we are. To realize we have all that we need and more. I hope that maybe some of us will slow down and really think about Thanksgiving this year. Maybe choose to have a different perspective of the coming Christmas season. And most of all, remember to be thankful.
I had never really understood what Thanksgiving was all about, as we don't have it here and never heard much about it. Only from watching Friends on TV! I don't even know when it is!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds a bit like Harvest Festival, but that is a church thing, a religious festival.
But as you say, it is not comercial and nothing to market, so that may be why the big companies have not tried to market it here, unlike Halloween.
It does sound lovely, hope you have a good time!