The
importance of Thanksgiving
The Thanksgiving holiday is almost here,
and everyone seems to be ready for it. After
all, Thanksgiving means free time reserved
for family and friends, where we can step
away from the duties of school and/or work.
For seniors, Thanksgiving is extremely important
because it provides a final opportunity
for them to catch up with the overwhelming
class materials.
However,
if we put aside all the holiday mumbo-jumbo,
what is the real importance of Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving
is specifically observed in the United States
as a tradition rooting back to over 200
years ago. After the first settlers in America
had survived a particularly challenging
year ? thanks to the unconditional help
of the native people ? they organized a
feast and invited everyone in the area to
participate. The European pilgrims, in this
event, came together with American Indians
so as to show gratitude by sharing their
abundant harvests. And, this is how the
Thanksgiving, it is claimed, first started.
For
some people, Thanksgiving simply symbolizes
a secular holiday that is based upon this
historical tradition. For others, however,
it symbolizes not only a tradition but a
religious attitude, one that requires giving
gratitude to the Christian principles. The
church, after all, likes to use the underlying
theme of Thanksgiving to encourage religious
worshipping.
However,
I am personally against this latter ? and
dogmatic ? interpretation of Thanksgiving,
because I believe such an interpretation
is guilty of egocentrism. To perceive Thanksgiving
as a religious holiday means to deny American
Indians ? and all non-Christian people of
this nation ? the intrinsic right to be
part of such a special day.
Let
us remember that the American Indians were
not as fortunate and grateful as the European
pilgrims. Let us remember that the arrival
of the European settlers brought about diseases,
against which the native people had no immunity.
Yet,
let us also remember that the European settlers
further took advantage of the native people’s
altruistic nature by exploiting their resources,
by oppressing their culture and, in short,
by alienating the native people from their
motherland.
Christian
principles may have served the happiness
of the European settlers, but how can the
religious doctrine explain the injustice
done to the American Indians? How can anybody
deny that our foremost gratitude belongs
to these spiritual, high-purpose beings?
Thanksgiving
provides a time for reflection and appreciation
of all the wonderful things that have impacted
our lives. Therefore, the real importance
of Thanksgiving lies, not in appreciating
Christian doctrines but in expressing the
powerful emotion inherent to human nature:
gratefulness. And, to be grateful requires
an acknowledgement that we have something
for which to be thankful and that we have
someone to whom to be thankful. After all,
we cannot have one without the other for
they are necessarily interconnected.
Therefore,
we need to think altruistically in this
special day, like the American Indians did,
and express our gratefulness to the ‘actual’
sources of our happiness, such as family,
friends and everyone else that has touched
upon our souls. Thanksgiving is, and should
be, a time of the year, in which we step
away from the demands of everyday life and
simply feel happy in the presence of each
other.
Barlas
Esin is a journalism major and philosophy
minor at Cal State Long Beach.
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