Random Thoughts of Thanksgiving!

Just an opportunity to post nice things.

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http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Leon_Gerome_Ferris
 
I know, essentially, what Thanksgiving is, and I understand the basic history of it. But can someone explain to me its contemporary relevance – what do people do? Just eat? – and why it's necessary to have this major holiday less than a month from Christmas.
 
It's a time to get together with family and/or friends, depending on your situation.

There are a few football games on, so that's closely tied into the holiday as well. I think the Cowboys and the Lions always play (though not each other.)

The food is the main event and pretty much everyone eats the same traditional Thanksgiving foods: a whole roasted turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes/yams, cranberry sauce, green vegetables, bread rolls, and lots and lots of dessert. Generally pies: pumpkin, apple, pecan. There are some cultural/ethnic food variations that can vary by family. For example I had Italian-American friends growing up and for some crazy reason they also had lasagna. I've been told by other British friends that it resembles a traditional "sunday dinner."

Other traditions include but are not limited to, backyard football, sibling rivalry, sleeping in your childhood bedroom, sneaking away to smoke weed, drunken political rants from your crazy uncle, and old men falling asleep on the couch after eating too much.

why it's necessary to have this major holiday less than a month from Christmas.

I'm afraid no one knows the answer to this. Except maybe that Americans are masochists?

edit: since we're on a film forum, there is one that comes to mind that shows how a family Thanksgiving might play out in a typical American household, if you want to get a sense of it and maybe get into the spirit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113321/
 
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Historically, a hundred or so religious peeps escaped their contemporary English society to practice their flavor in cultural isolation.
They sold seven years of their labor to investors in exchange for transportation and basic guidance to "The new world."
Some of them pussed out and wouldn't go, so the investors contracted to other hired laborers to go with the "pilgrims" on the two month journey to America.
This ding-donging around delayed their departure until early September, meaning their dumb@sees landed in Massachusetts in early November, not exactly good planting weather.
Additionally, the ship (Mayflower) was carrying a passenger with a fatal flu-like infection that killed about half of everyone.
These idiots were freezing, starving, and diseasing to death all winter long.
Native american Indians saved their dumb @asses.
The next fall the colony survivors hosted a feast to give thanks to God for their good fortune - to survive.

The practice today is an opportunity for family members to gather together and give thanks for their own good fortune (with or without God's grace), the irony being that they're often spreading more viruses and infections from around the nation.

History is GREAT!
I love it!

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That is an awesome movie, Steve. But I don't really consider it a Thanksgiving movie really. It's more a hilarious (and then sad) romp that happens to take place right before Thanksgiving
 
Historically, a hundred or so religious peeps escaped their contemporary English society to practice their flavor in cultural isolation.
They sold seven years of their labor to investors in exchange for transportation and basic guidance to "The new world."
Some of them pussed out and wouldn't go, so the investors contracted to other hired laborers to go with the "pilgrims" on the two month journey to America.
This ding-donging around delayed their departure until early September, meaning their dumb@sees landed in Massachusetts in early November, not exactly good planting weather.
Additionally, the ship (Mayflower) was carrying a passenger with a fatal flu-like infection that killed about half of everyone.
These idiots were freezing, starving, and diseasing to death all winter long.
Native american Indians saved their dumb @asses.
The next fall the colony survivors hosted a feast to give thanks to God for their good fortune - to survive.

All history should be told like this! I see a short film Ray's Adventures with Pilgrims...

I actually used to go for afternoon tea (if there could be a more British thing) quite regularly at the coffee shop where the Mayflower voyage was planned from.
 
We do have Secret Santa Christmas videos coming shortly.
Hmm...

'Uncle Dick's The History of Christmas'


Hmm...

Sounds like a winner-winner-chicken-dinner!
 
I am thankful fo stereoscopic vision and opposable thumbs allowing me to hunt and kill with tools.

I am thankful for being too lazy to hunt and gather and smart enough to plant crops.

I am thankful for the domestication of cattle, swine, and fowl.

I am thankful for clean water so that I don't die of "the squirts."

I am thankful for Ebola so that there might be some remote opportunity to get rid of 60% of 7billion human beings as a good start before we fuuu-foul up this planet PDQ.

http://www.census.gov/popclock/

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and why it's necessary to have this major holiday less than a month from Christmas.

What kind of a question is this for a European :)? North Americans are under the impression that you guys are constantly on vacation. I remember during my professional days, Europe was incommunicado for two to three weeks during Christmas and New Year. TWO TO THREE WEEKS!!!!! That's unheard of in this part of what they call the hemisphere. The UK wasn't that bad. But my God, the rest of Europe couldn't be bothered if the whole world was coming to an end. They were on vacation. I mean they really were on vacation. The entire continent stopped returning emails. :lol:

On a different note, I was just cold, walking through the street the other day, and as I was leaning against the elevator wall as I was being mechanically carried up and basking in the warmth inside the elevator, a whole swell of gratitude came upon me, and I thought of all those people who suffered the brutal winters those hundreds of years ago to tame this land, so now I could be carried in a warm elevator and complain about how cold it is.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

FYI, in Canada, Thanksgiving is in October.
 
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