Gratitude central to Thanksgiving
As an ex-pat American, I often find myself trying to explain why we do what we do in the land of my birth.
You will appreciate that since November 9, the answers have been hard to come by. It’s been an awkward few weeks. But this week things are back to normal, and I am getting the
Thanksgiving question.
As long as I’ve lived in glorious Aotearoa, the last week of November has been peppered with friends’ comments along the line of: ‘‘I bet you really miss Thanksgiving, don’t you?’’
And I answer, proudly and unashamedly, ‘‘Yes.’’
You Kiwis have a lot of great stuff here, and I do love my adopted country; but one thing you’re missing is Thanksgiving. I think you know it, too. I hear the wistfulness in your voice. I see the way you smile when you ask me whether it’s true some Americans eat mashed kumara with mini marshmallows on top. You want to have a Thanksgiving Day.
So what’s the problem? Make your own Thanksgiving. The Canadians did.
Although the original version has a great deal to do with the events of 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, you can quite easily leave the Pilgrims and Native Americans and British Colonialism behind.
I can assure you, we have. For us, Thanksgiving Day is about the Holy Trinity of Family, Food and Football - all wrapped up in a big squishy bundle of gratitude.
The beautiful thing about gratitude is that it is not reliant upon religion, nor does it depend upon any specific historical event. Gratitude can be as secular and all-inclusive as you like. In fact, it’s better that way.
And you can be thankful any time of the year.
Take that endless no-holiday stretch between Queen’s Birthday and Labour Weekend.
The most dismal, rainy months of the year. You must admit that a four-day weekend, with the fundamental mandate to eat massive amounts of comfort food, is just what we all need the last week of July.
In the United States, Thanksgiving Day was officially made a national holiday in 1863 by a presidential proclamation of Abraham Lincoln.
So, John Key… the ball is in your court. Before you dismiss this out-of-hand, I suggest you consider how you’re likely to be remembered.
Let’s be perfectly honest; as it stands now, you are the answer to the pub quiz question: ‘‘Which Prime Minister spent $25 million in a failed initiative to change the New Zealand flag?’’
Wouldn’t it be nicer if the question was: ‘‘In 2017, Prime Minister John Key created which national holiday?’’
Go on, John. Put Thanksgiving Day on the Kiwi calendar. We’ll all be grateful, and I suspect you will be too.
What do you think? Email jenny.ling@fairfaxmedia.co.nz or write your own reader report on Stuff.co.nz