Thanksgiving: The Ultimate Misunderstood Holiday

Of all of the major American holidays that would probably be the most misunderstood, we’d say Christmas is a best bet. A cynic’s favorite to pick on – and not without reason – it’s not a hot take to say that Christmas can be over-commercialized and people easily bury the lede. It’s common that people hear too much from each other and see too often in the Hallmark specials that they commercialize Christmas too much and prioritize the wrong things. It’s a trap many fall into, but the real message is always built in.

But Thanksgiving is in an awkward spot of the year. Numbers are being finalized, work years are being put to bed, and all the holiday hype is ready to bypass Thanksgiving and head straight to Christmas. In this way, Thanksgiving is sort of like the younger, less important sibling of Christmas, the holiday nearly everyone universally anticipates and the same holiday for which everyone receives regular scoldings, as light-hearted as they might be, about the “true meaning” of itself.

Thanksgiving is often passed by, without much of a thought about the true meaning of the holiday, and people often don’t stop to remind each other.

During the Christmas rush, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with shopping, cooking, traffic, in-laws – we appreciate The Twelve Pains of Christmas novelty song to exclusively bring home this point. But it’s just as easy to come back down to Earth as it is to get separated.

During the Thanksgiving rush offers no similar solace. The cooking, the shopping, the preparing, the coordinating all get away from people, but the main message never seems to boomerang back.

This year, remember the true meaning of this Thanksgiving season. The “pilgrim story” is an age-old tale, but the true risks and uncertainty of the circumstances that birthed the holiday are more what’s on our minds.

An eternally-long boat ride from which survival was not guaranteed, foraying into a completely uncharted world with meager supplies and the necessity of working with what they had in the New World, foreign people whose intentions were understandably unpredictable, and an upcoming harsh winter that had claimed colonists long before them.

It’s easy to see why their survival was a miracle, and recognizing God for their harvest and survival of the winter is what started the tradition.

This year, try to ease back from the holiday hype and reflect on the true meaning of this holiday, even if it’s not always spelled back to us through television specials and anecdotes.