Thanksgiving is my Favorite Holiday
by Bill Gouveia for the Sun Chronicle
This Thursday is Thanksgiving, and it is my favorite holiday. I’m sure that is in part because I wind up with a four-day weekend, but it goes well beyond that.
Thanksgiving is one of the few truly American holidays, a moment when most of the country pauses and comes together to celebrate. There are virtually no controversial Thanksgivings. No one questions what day it should fall on, or who is marching in the parades, or whether or not we are observing it the “right way”. It’s just a time for family, food and football.
Sure, there are the valid points concerning the treatment of Native Americans, both now and centuries before. You can always find those willing and eager to tell you the original Thanksgiving was not a joyous coming together of two cultures trying to respect and love one another.
But in general, Thanksgiving in this day and age is America’s national day off, the one time of the year we tend to stop arguing with both friends and foes and concentrate on what brings us together. It is not a solemn time, or really even a reflective one. It’s just a chance to be with family and appreciate having that tremendous opportunity.
On Thanksgiving we tend to be more tolerant of crazy old Uncle Louie. His Facebook rants that border on racist and sexist are temporarily set aside, and he plays with the grandchildren and tells stories of the old days. We also back off of militant college student Mary, who takes a break from railing against the establishment and the unfairness of everything long enough to have some turkey (with no antibiotics and not raised in cages) and share some laughs.
With all due respect to religion, Thanksgiving doesn’t involve going to church or having to perform those types of rituals and ceremonies. Not that there is anything wrong with rituals and ceremonies. It’s just nice to be celebrating and giving thanks for little more than each other, at least for one day.
To be sure, Thanksgiving does indeed have rituals. High school football games on Thanksgiving are a long-standing tradition in many local communities. Getting up and going to the contests, usually to play your local arch-rival for some mythical championship, is something everyone should experience.
In my house, woe to the poor soul who scoops the Ocean Spray jellied cranberry sauce out of the can rather than removing it completely from one end and slicing it into wafers. My daughter-in-law MJ discovered that on her first Thanksgiving with us, and the poor thing has never completely recovered from the wrath rained down upon her. But since she controls three of the grandchildren – and we love her – all was forgiven.
My late mother had many duties during family Thanksgiving celebrations years ago. Chief among them was making the gravy. Everyone loved it.
Then one year she burned the gravy. It tasted terrible. She was upset, and we took full advantage.
For the rest of her years with us, we joked at Thanksgiving about my mother burning the gravy. “Grandma, we think your gravy is on fire!” my sons would tease her. “Hey Mom, I think the smoke detector is going off. Are you making the gravy?” I would ask in front of everyone. We did it for every single Thanksgiving, and now that she is gone – we still joke about it and how she pretended to be irritated, but actually loved it.
This Thanksgiving my sister-in-law Valerie will probably make her Swedish bread, my sister-in-law Darleen will make her world famous deviled eggs and my wife will make her amazing apple twists for dessert.
Often we have had special guests on Thanksgiving. Church friends with no place else to go, members of special group homes my late sister befriended when she worked there and friends of our kids who were away from home for school or other reasons.
These are the things that make this holiday special. They are the memories that will live beyond me and into future family Thanksgiving gatherings. Decades from now I may be gone, but the smell of my mom’s burnt gravy will no doubt still be discussed at Turkey Day dinners.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
Bill Gouveia is a local columnist and longtime local official. He can be reached at billinsidelook@gmail.com and followed on Twitter at @Billinsidelook.
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