Thanksgiving: An adopted holiday to be thankful for

The modern iteration of Thanksgiving is to me the closest to a major humanist celebration we have

The first Thanksgiving depicted by an unknown artist

It’s like Christmas without all the frenzied hassle of presents, Hanukkah without the religious symbolism. It’s a time for family and friends to come together and feast and – yes – give thanks. This Thursday marks one of the most important days in the year, at least for me and mine. Thanksgiving Day is one of the few American cultural events in the annual calendar that has not crossed the Atlantic, and we are the poorer for it.

Instead, every year we embrace further the vulgar nonsense of Halloween, with its rampant commercialism, ill-thought-through symbolism and the mixed messages we send our hyped-up children in pursuit of sweets. Not to mention our own odd celebration of terrorism past, Guy Fawkes Night.

Latterly, we have even adopted the obscene festival of greed that is the “Black Friday” sales. We have forgotten that the Friday is only possible because it’s an unofficial holiday, the day after Thanksgiving Day. Americans fill that rare day off work with the cultural activity they know and love best: shopping.

It’s Thanksgiving Day itself that is worth celebrating. Yes, I know it has religious origins, but what didn’t back in 1621, when the first Thanksgiving was observed in the “New World” by pilgrims giving thanks for their first successful harvest? They weren’t Puritans. Yes, I know that much later Abraham Lincoln ordained an official national holiday to give thanks and praise to “our beneficent Father”. And yes, I know Native Americans were at the first feast, probably not suspecting that they would soon have very little to give thanks for.

Four centuries later, the modern iteration of Thanksgiving is to me the closest to a major humanist celebration we have – and all the better for it. If there’s one day a year when we genuinely endeavour to gather together with our loved ones to celebrate the fact that we actually have loved ones, give thanks for our lives, and for surviving another year, then it’s to be savoured.

Many of us have so much to be grateful for. Not least for me, that I can write whatever the hell I like every week, and you are free to be as critical as you wish. For that, my health, my friends and family – and the fact I could put a turkey on the table should I choose this week – I give immeasurable thanks, certain that’s it’s got nothing whatsoever to do with any “beneficent Father”. Sorry, Abe.

Stefano Hatfield is the editor-in-chief of high50.com Twitter: @stefanohat