The Thanksgiving Tradition

I am not going to go into a big long argument about Thanksgiving. I just want to mention an interesting observation.  I was talking to a group of women about how they celebrate their holidays “back home.”  It was wonderful hearing what they had to say.  In some ways it was the same as the way we celebrate in the United States and in some ways it was different.  The most interesting part of the conversation is that one of the things that made the difference was money.

 When you hear us talk about the holidays we talk about spending time with family, friends and spending money. All the television commercials show us coming together and sporting new “things.” I see less and less about family togetherness in these commercials. Now the holidays include the black Friday or holiday shopping experience.  I hear us talking about taking advantage of the black Friday sales.  The other ladies only talked about the preparations, coming together and observing traditions.  They spoke warmly about seeing family they don’t get to see as often as they would like. 

There is nothing wrong with shopping but now we cut our holidays short to shop.  We eat and run out to find “sales.”  The busiest travel holiday of the year and we eat and then run out to shop.

I heard one store wanted to give their employees time off for Thanksgiving and the shopping center said they would fine the store by the hour if they did not open on Thanksgiving. I wonder what that says about our “traditions and values.”

Sigrid