Kirkepiscatoid

(Ok, so I stole the main word in the title from the sign on the First Methodist Church in Memphis, MO on a recent monthly run to sign off on lab paperwork at Scotland County Memorial Hospital...but it has been a long time since the Methodists had anything worth snitching for me, so hey...)

From p. 246 in the BCP:

Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

I got to thinking a little about "Thanksgiving in the abstract" yesterday. Although harvest festivals and religious days of thanks for harvest bounty have been around as long as there have been people, the idea of a secular national holiday for Thanksgiving is pretty much an American invention. The only two other countries that I know of that have a Thanksgiving day holiday (and it is in October, not November) are Canada and Grenada. Two out of the three Thanksgivings, in the modern secular sense, center around football--college football in the US (unless of course you are a Detroit Lions fan--the tradition of the Lions playing on Thanksgiving Day is now older than 24 current NFL franchises--and CFL football in Canada, where "The Thanksgiving Doubleheader" is a classic.

So, as much as we complain about the commercialization of Christmas, well...Thanksgiving has taken a beating there, too. Despite the insistence of the Christian fundamentalists that Thanksgiving is a Christian religious holiday, because of its separatist Pilgrim roots, American "official days of thanksgiving" were designed to be pluralist affairs. Even the first proclamation of a national day of thanks by George Washington in 1789, although it uses the phrase "Almighty God", is very carefully crafted in more or less "Masonic" terms to emphasize its non-sectarian nature:

"Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best."

This is pretty much "Great Enlightenment era" language.

It's also a time that, despite I think Ben Franklin was right in wanting to make the turkey the national bird, it's just as well because it would seem funny eating the national bird once a year...but I guess I could think of it in Eucharistic terms...eat a piece of the nation to become part of the nation...

Another interesting thing to remember is that Thanksgiving has not always been a universal American thing. Prior to 1863, when Abraham Lincoln began the tradition of Thanksgiving Day being proclaimed annually by the President, it was essentially a New England/Middle eastern states holiday. Southerners, after the Civil War, considered it a "Yankee holiday" and ignored it for decades. They felt that carpetbaggers and scalawags used it as an annual reminder to stick the bloody shirt in their faces. It really wasn't until the early 1900's that Southerners really took a liking to Thanksgiving (and much to their credit, b/c without them there would be no cornbread turkey stuffing, my favorite!)

Thanksgiving was always proclaimed on the last Thursday in November until 1939, when FDR moved it to the "next to last" one. However, this was viewed in some circles as a New Deal trick to have a longer shopping season for Christamas to boost the economy; so in 1939 only 23 of the then-48 states celebrated it on the day Roosevelt proclaimed; the rest stuck to the last Thursday (except Texas, which took both days off). In 1941 Congress passed a law making it the fourth Thursday, and that's where we've been ever since.

But how do we get around to giving thanks in a spiritual way in a holiday that is fraught with gluttony, football, and Black Friday shopping? I'll be honest; my family didn't. It was "eat, drink, watch football, fight, and be anal-retentive about turkey table decor." It was eating foods we cooked at best, twice a year and God help anyone who deviated from the pattern. (My mother will never let me forget the year I made Mexican food for Thanksgiving at my house. When she saw that we were not having turkey/stuffing/potatoes/noodles/cranberry "sauce" that looks like the inside of the tin can she gave me an earful for "pissing on the shoes of everything she holds dear about Thanksgiving." Meanwhile my grandmother was laughing and going, "What the hell, with all the Mexicans moving in around here, it probably won't be long till everyone will be eating turkey tacos on Thanksgiving."

The only "tradition" we had was slow cooking the turkey overnight and waking up to the smell of it. I laugh that now every year, the TV and radio run all the admonisments about "don't slow cook the turkey, don't leave the food out," and threaten everyone with Salmonella food poisoning. Well, if it were THAT easy to cause your relatives to sicken and die, more people would give it a go, you know?

But it has created issues for me as an adult who wants to craft my own relationship with the holiday that has both a spiritual and secular meaning. I have had to make some of my own "traditions". Most of that revolves around creating my own sacred space in my head to simply take time in all the mess to feel grateful for "all the blessings of this life", as we say in the General Thanksgiving and to list them. (It will be an upcoming post.) The other is that I refuse to shop on Black Friday. I just refuse to shop in a situation where it's obvious the stores want people to act like cattle. Blech. But if you have your own "traditions", share them with me today; I'm curious!