TUESDAY, Nov. 20, be sure to tune your televisions in to the made-for-TV movie, "Prancer Returns." With Thanksgiving right around the corner, the movie appropriately will be dealing with the struggles of Christmas. This is a commonplace event in America nowadays. Just when Halloween has barely passed, storefronts and the media begin marketing Christmas themes, basically overlooking our national holiday of Thanksgiving. The two month time span between Halloween and Christmas allows for enough time to appreciate and focus on Thanksgiving in November and Christmas for the month following. We should put forth an effort to recognize and celebrate Thanksgiving for its historical and cultural value to America and not overshadow it with unnecessarily early Christmas cheer.
The very first Thanksgiving feast was held in 1621 on Plymouth Plantation. Three days of feasting brought with them a story of history, peace and friendship. In 1817, New York state adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom and by 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving. Since then, each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday. The holiday is important enough to obtain presidential attention, and yet to the rest of America, it has been shadowed by the consumer-centered holiday known as Christmas.
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Christmas is a big holiday around much of the world, and it deserves its recognition as well. When taken in the right context, it provides a sense of holiday cheer, togetherness and encourages a spirit of giving. Unfortunately, in this market-driven world of the 21st century, much of the original Christmas spirit has been lost. Toy companies mass produce all of the hot new items, and adults go crazy trying to procure them for their children, grandchildren and other family and friends. The spirit of giving turns selfish as people pit against each other to buy the best gift. This is not a holiday that should be given two months worth of publicity and attention.
After the excitement of Halloween and trick-or-treating, we should utilize the two month time span before Christmas comes knocking in order to embrace the positive moral values in both Christmas and Thanksgiving. In order to fully achieve the spirit of giving and togetherness in December, we should begin by using November to recognize Thanksgiving Day and its sense of appreciation for our lives and those around us.
Playing movies and selling decorations for Christmas on Nov. 2 is not going to change anything about the holiday itself. It would do shopkeepers no harm to wait a few more weeks to sell their wreaths - people will still buy them come December. Two months is a long time for parents to have to hide presents from their children and for wreaths and trees to stay alive within the house. This is just prolonging the pre-Christmas shopping burden and might bring down the level of holiday spirit when it all comes down to the actual day, two months away.
As for the movies and special concerts already being promoted on TV and the radio, there is nothing explicitly better about the Christmas season that warrants giving it air time before Thanksgiving. The weeks before Thanksgiving Day could be used in a historically educational way for children. There is nothing so special about a flying reindeer movie that would make it a better option to air than one about a talking turkey. There could be movies or special programs about the pilgrims and the Native Americans. We could be shown an interpretation of the first Thanksgiving and its original intentions of peace and thanks. There is no reason that a movie about Thanksgiving should be less entertaining or beneficial to children than one about Christmas.
It should be especially imperative that, in this time of national crisis, we band together as a country and celebrate the holidays unique to us. Thanksgiving was established at our nation's very beginning and the celebration of it truly signifies our American heritage. Christmas is celebrated all over and does not work so much to unite our country with all of its different faiths.
The spirit of Thanksgiving is to give thanks for our lives and what we have. As we slowly rebuild our nation's security and overcome all of our own fears, it is important that we recognize and appreciate everything that we still do have in our lives and even that we still have life itself.
(Alex Roosenberg's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at aroosenburg@cavalierdaily.com.)
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