I enjoy Thanksgiving. I enjoy not being at work, which is always a big plus. I enjoy my job, but I prefer being home with my family. Thanksgiving for me has always been a time of friends and family gathering together to play games, watch football, play football, watch the Macy’s parade and, of course, eat way too much food.
Over the last few years, and especially this year, I have been seeing a big “Friendsgiving” push. I don’t really get this. It is still Thanksgiving! I’m not sure I understand the need to rename this holiday. It is Thanksgiving because it is a time when we give thanks to God for the “harvest”, for all the blessings we have. While it is uncertain when the first “thanksgiving” was in America, it dates back to the early 1600’s (and indeed the tradition dates back long before that in other countries). Thanksgiving has always been a time set aside to give thanks to God for the harvest and for all the blessings of the previous year. Many times it was just being thankful they survived the previous year.
At some point in our American history, like we have done with most things, Thanksgiving has become just another day with lots of expectations and stresses attached to it. The expectation of the perfect meal. The expectation of all the family traveling, sometimes long distances at great expense, to be together. And with our “blended” family structures of today, that sometimes means unrealistic expectations of being at two or more places in the same day. More time is spent traveling between places than the time spent with the families or friends. Maybe it’s because we no longer rely on the actual harvest for our survival through the winter months. Maybe it’s because it is no longer a holiday on it’s own, but rather the official start of the crazy Christmas shopping season and the start of Black Friday. We don’t even close our stores for a whole day anymore. Whatever the reason, we have slowly lost the purpose for the holiday.
Maybe I’m a bit cynical, but it seems to me that the whole rise in the popularity of “Friendsgiving” is another distraction from a great tradition of giving thanks to God. But, then again, some of our traditional Thanksgiving traditions also distract us from that same purpose. The early Thanksgiving feasts were more of a “pot luck” and filled with friends and family. Everyone came together as a large group, not as separate families. Our expectations of the perfect day can create too much stress to be thankful. The trends of “Friendsgiving” in some ways seem to be getting back to the earlier Thanksgiving times, but, I think “Friendsgiving” is a step toward taking our focus off of the purpose of the day… to celebrate the blessings from God and to give Him the thanks, praise, and the glory for everything that we have. And it just sounds weird.
Rejoice always, pray continually,
give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18
Grab some turkey and leave your comments below.
