Giving Thanks & Having Misgivings

At school, Thanksgiving meant something a little different. Without the weight of television and the occupation that comes with retail store, Thanksgiving as it was celebrated at school felt simpler, more straightforwardly celebratory. Now, I cannot help but second guess the holiday. With the abundance and ornamentation of the holiday abounding in shop windows and grocery store aisles, I think all the more of the pseudo-mythic origins of the holiday.

In some ways, it would make more sense for it to be a simple fertility festival. Instead, it is layered with history that has been obfuscated and forgotten. In one case, it would mean a celebration of family, harvest, and even of hard labor and subsequent satisfaction. In the actual case, it is more complicated, filtered first through the strange policies that legitimized, then the methods to commercialize the holiday. Without a doubt, the day means something very important; it is a day to bring people together, even to heal and reinforce bonds between them with food and shared activities--cooking, football, evening movies, etc.

Simultaneous to that is the reality of a holiday that refers to a myth of cooperation and mutuality. Such a myth not only misleads the historical reality, it conceals the significant history and conflicts that proceeded. It seems like national holidays have that dual reality: celebration and obfuscation. Some people might argue that celebration in this case is just another form of confusion, that it is a thin, shallow veil. I disagree. Usually, time with the family together is enriching and enjoyed, particularly since my family is so far-flung. Nevertheless, by confounding the history for a myth, a dangerous myth, and submitting to regular reinterpretation by organizations which benefit from our ignorance, the myth supplants the reality and breaks whatever honest foundation we might have.

Some may celebrate their national holidays in particular, even dissenting ways. A festival so gastro-centric obviously lends itself to establishing sound food ways and the richness of a meaningful food culture. I obviously love making food from scratch and being in fine company only adds to that pleasure. Thanksgiving food in particular identifies the delights of New World food in this increasingly dislocated gustatory marketplace. The supper table is usually replete with pumpkins and pecans, cranberries and turkey, all of which were unfamiliar fixings to the Europeans. What you get it something distinctly regional, something based on real food from a real place, grown from soil and not assembled in factories. For this, I am thankful.