Oh, holidays.

I never know quite what to do with them.  I’m a purist by nature, and I try not to think too hard about the ‘real’ meaning of any holiday.  That sounds horrible.  I even turned to the Bible, but I have a really hard time trying to discern a situation in which “…one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way. So, each person is free to follow the convictions of conscience.“ {Romans 14:5}.

Let me take you on a 30 second journey into my brain when I think about Christmas and try to ‘remember the reason for the season’.

Christmas, it’s about the Birth of Christ.  Right? But, like A.P. said a few years ago, He never actually asked us to celebrate his birthday, which certainly doesn’t mean we shouldn’t, but what really got the whole December 25th thing going? Was it the Early Christians trying to woo some Romans away from their own late December festival of Saturnalia {That included trees. And mistletoe.  And giving gifts to kids.}  And there is that whole lying to my kids about Santa thing that I hate.  St Nicholas was real, but he helped poor people, not kids who circled toy after toy on page after page of a Toys R Us catalog.

Thirty seconds, y’all.

So naturally, I wonder every year about Thanksgiving.  What is it’s deal, anyway? Is it about Pilgrims and Native Americans really? Schools have Harvest Parties now instead of Thanksgiving Parties.  Is there something objectionable I don’t know about? Or is it just not cool?

So I am Occupying Thanksgiving.  It’s OK that I don’t really know what I mean by that, because nobody who is occupying anything right now does either. At least I am not stinking up a park.

Here it is.  The Top Ten Things Thanksgiving is REALLY about.  According to the convictions of my conscience.

1. Harvest.  Native Americans and Pilgrims both had their own harvest celebrations that kind of meshed together once they started hanging out.
2. Hospitality.  The Wampanoag Indians taught the Pilgrims how to fish and helped them plant seeds, because they were starving in their new land.
3. Problem Neighbors.  After a few years of strife, the Powhatan Indians slaughtered a bunch of Colonists.  Lesson:  tread lightly in someone else’s land.
4. Religious freedom.  That’s why the Pilgrims were there, after all.
5. Religious intolerance.  After a few years, the Pilgrims decided that while no one was going to tell THEM who to worship; those Native Americans needed some guidance in this area.
6. Modern Day Style Politics.  It took several different presidents and a lobbying group to decide on Thanksgiving’s date.  George Washington and Abraham Lincoln both proclaimed it a day of prayer, but Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson said it was not in their constitutional power to do so.  Finally, Franklin Roosevelt let the National Dry Goods Retail Association have their way and moved it to a date that allowed plenty of time for Christmas shopping.  True story.
7. Beaujolais Nouveau.  More of an association than an actual meaning; it is delicious wine that happens to come out out this time of year, and you really must try it.
8. Pumpkin.  Most of the food we eat today in celebration of Thanksgiving is nowhere close to the original Thanksgiving feasts, but pumpkin totally was.
9. Parades.  Although I love raising my kids in Grand Rapids, the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade I went to as a kid RULED and I wish I could take them.
10. Packing light.  For school, Maybelle has to pack a bag with only a few things she would take with her if she were going on the Mayflower.  It’s a good exercise to think through.  What would you would take with you if you had to start over? What’s really important? {For Maybelle, lipgloss was her first item.}

What does Thanksgiving mean to YOU?

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday at Oh! Amanda.