Random thoughts about Thanksgiving 2024

What did I miss? Are there other "pause and think" tidbits to share from online life?

What is Thanksgiving anyway?

I wrote a post the other day (“A Thanksgiving flashback, after another sobering year”) that sort of assumed that we all knew what the word “Thanksgiving” meant, even as a mere date on the American calendar (and even that simple fact has an interesting history, in terms of national custom, politics and the business marketplace).

Right up front, I admit that readers need to know that I am the archetypal Baby Boomer, born in 1954 at the peak of the post-World War II demographic wave. Thus, I have a rather Baby Boomer take on this holiday. So let’s start there.

As a Baptist preacher’s kid growing up in Texas, Thanksgiving was simply Thanksgiving — as the date for, if at all possible, two- or even three-generation family reunions. It helped, of course, that most of the Mattingly families of Texas (and many other folks) could pull this off with a car trip.

Oh, and Thanksgiving was the STARTING DATE for the great cultural parade to Christmas. America was already to the point in which “Christmas” began on the shopping day after Thanksgiving. That corporate America tradition began in the late 19th Century with businesses sponsoring “Thanksgiving parades” in which the American Santa Claus showed up, kids started thinking about toys and stores rolled out their festive decorations.

When did all of those events officially merge into Black Friday?

Once again, that’s a complex cultural and corporate question. But here is the key: Centuries of Christian liturgical traditions — East (Nativity Lent) and West (Advent) — were gone. Few believers remained who understood the need to prepare for the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, with a season of quiet reflection and repentance. Fasting? With Christmas parties stacked back to back for weeks?

Advent calendars hung around to some degree, with many folks turning them into cultural novelties or even jokes. Advent wreaths graced a few altars.

What was lost? Remember Charles Dickens, “A Christmas Carol” and all of those folks getting ready for Christmas on Christmas Eve, preparing for the 12-day season of Christmas? How about that lovely Christmas classic, “The Bishop’s Wife”? That approach to Christmas died long ago.

Early in the smartphone era, I wrote a column — “Occupy Advent 2012 (Let's ask Siri)” — that opened with a simple concept: It you asked Apple to define Christmas, what would you get? A sample:

The first question was simple: "Siri, when is Christmas?" After the two-tone "BEED-EEP" chime, the voice of the Apple iPhone responded: "Christmas is on Tuesday, December 25, 2012. I hope I have the day off."

Then matters got complicated: "When is Advent?"

Siri searched her memory and said: "I didn't find any events about 'Ed Fant.' "

Trying again: "When is the Advent season?"

Siri cheerfully responded: "I am not aware of any events about 'advent season.' "

After several more "BEED-EEP" chimes the Apple cloud ultimately drew a blank when asked, "When does the Christmas season end?" Alas, Siri didn't understand the term "Christmas season."

Things have improved, maybe. I just asked Siri: “When are the 12 days of Christmas?” Amazingly enough, She/They got the right answer. That’s way better than the mass-media gods who — this is the new normal — started showing “Christmas movies” just before Halloween.

I realize that this rant is evidence that I am a Holiday Heretic, as in someone who foolishly believes that Christmas has something to do with Christian faith and tradition.

Meanwhile, Thanksgiving was a “civil religion” operation from the get-go, a season in which the major doctrinal debates centered on the contents of the stuffing that went with the mandatory turkey.

Nevertheless, there have been big Thanksgiving changes, many linked to Internet-based commerce all but killing the pre-dawn Black Friday rites of Big Box and Shopping Mall. Variations of cyber-Black Friday now kick into high gear before Thanksgiving, requiring analog storekeepers to fight back with their own small-business rituals that plead with citizens to spend some of their shopping budgets in nearby zip codes, instead of camping out in Amazon land.

Also, the old jokes about the complex dynamics of Thanksgiving family reunions turned deadly serious with the arrival of the Orange Man Bad era? Apparently, the woke members of many families cutting any remaining ties that bind them, in terms of breaking bread and extending fellowship to backward kin whose religious, moral and cultural beliefs may #trigger rage, anxiety and depression.

In other words, even a secular Thanksgiving is dangerous territory.