Holiday Analysis (Thanksgiving)

Thanksgiving has a few sides. To some people, Thanksgiving is about celebrating after harvesting all these different foods. That's what the holiday is supposed to be at least. And to others, Thanksgiving is about being thankful for life, and everything we have. It's about being grateful for living in the current situation you live in because as the famous quote of that day goes "others have it worse so be thankful you're living the way you are". But what is thanksgiving to those other people who do have it worse? What if they live on the streets? To them it's just another day for survival. Nothing new, same old. On this particular day , people start becoming nicer and donate food to the hungry/ poor. They cook up a nice meal and make sure they can enjoy what they please also. This part of thanksgiving teaches us to share and not be greedy. It teaches you to reach out to those who need it and to be the 'helping hand'. To some, Thanksgiving can also be religious. It can teach you to be thankful that God has provided you with everything you have. It teaches you that family and friends are important and that just being with them while sharing a meal all together is the most important thing. On this day, its not about all the things you have (well for the most part), its about all the people you can share your life with and how lucky you are to have them in your life.
I think the choice of music, participants, dress code, timing, activities, and food all depends on whose family/group of friends is celebrating it. But I'm sure for most people thanksgiving day makes people play the mellow or happy kind of music. It's not that popular to sit and listen to heavy metal or something that will end up making you sad or depressed or feeling lonely because thanksgiving is a time when you're really not supposed to be lonely. It should play the songs that kind of make you smile and make you think about how when it all comes down to it, life really is worth living (or at least thats the kind of spirit Thanksgiving gives to people). Participants of course as previously discussed already are most likely friends and family or people of great importance/ people your 'thankful' for. As for dress code. I wouldn't know how others dress for Thanksgiving but I know in my family, some of us dress laid back (everyday clothing but still making an effort to look nice) and some dress as if they're going to church. My family celebrates Thanksgiving around after the sun is starting to set. I have no idea why either. We don't do much besides eat and hang out with each other. Obviously Thanksgiving is a feast day (mainly because it's after everything has been harvested etc.) I guess the popular foods are pumpkin, turkey, squash, stuffing, etc. Rituals are either praying before you eat or probably going around in a circle to tell everyone out loud what you're thankful for in you're life. I guess on this day you're supposed to act as if you would when going to church (based on dress code because people at church either go casually or really nice, rarely dirty/messy). This holiday is supposed to make you become "thankful" but it kind of seems fake because if someones truly thankful, they would be everyday. Not just one day out of the year.
Thanksgiving is also known as "Genocide day". I read more about it from an article called "No Thanks to Thanksgiving". Published by Robert Jensen in 2005. Here is the link ( http://www.alternet.org/story/28584/ ) anyways, from this article, I read about the background of history of how thanksgiving "came to be". This article helped me learn that Thanksgiving day is also a day where the indigenous people "marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas." I had no idea Thanksgiving could also be a day of mourning and deep misery coming from way back when. I mean these people were slaughtered, forced out of their homes, died from diseases they weren't immune to, fought for their life, had their culture practically 'taken' from them, were forced to have new beliefs, etc and all because they trusted these people who played as their friends when in reality they were plotting against them the whole time.
Mainly the messages we receive on the 'good and meaningful life' don't support the messages Thanksgiving tells us about. Usually we're told money and nice clothing and being 'fresh' etc is everything. Thanksgiving tells us just to be grateful for what we have. It kind of says that what we have is good enough and to be happy with it. Not to be selfish or anything of that nature. I don't think this holiday is telling us to be our everyday selves. Instead to be better than that. For this one day, to act better than your normal self. To act as if God himself were watching us on this very day. Right then and there. To behave because that's what you're 'supposed' to do.