The forgotten holiday

(from http://www.fanpop.com/spots/peanuts/images/452773/title/thanksgiving-wallpaper)

What holiday are you enamored  by? For me it is Christmas.  I love the decorations and trees and the general feelings.  For others it is Halloween.  Other than the candy, not a fan.  I set a few decorations, but I don't look forward to it.  I suppose it is because of the fact that Zombies and Vampires are on most every channel.  That said, what about the forgotten holidays?

Easter has become more about bunnies and chicks for many and not nearly as much about the three important days of Christian beliefs. But that's a whole other blog.

There are a bunch.  Understandably there is Columbus Day, no longer politically fashionable.  There is also Veterans' Day, often barely remembered. The three day holidays, President's Day, although once upon a time we celebrated Washington's and Lincoln's Birthdays as two separate holidays, and Labor Day and Memorial Day and Martin Luther King's Birthday.  There are the Hallmark holidays of St. Valentines, Mother's Day, and the lesser Father's Day. There are some of the odder ones like May Day which was actually originally a fertility right, Arbor Day, Green Day, Grandparent Day, Take Your Kid to Disrupt Work Day, Secretary Day, Boss's Day, and a host of others.  There's also the beer holidays like St. Patty's Day and I hate to say it the 4th of July.  Drinks and Fireworks, now there's a good idea.

But the one that has lost the most in meaning is a major one.

When I was a kid, between Halloween and Christmas there was Thanksgiving.  It was not the sports holiday for football.  I should mention that I am more than a bit concerned and saddened about football on Christmas day, but Thanksgiving lost, I think some of its status, because there aren't any real holiday treats.  It's about football and eating and maybe a heavily orchestrated Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  The magic of Santa's arrival or the balloons loses something when the parade becomes more about product placement and singing stars promoting their latest album than this was the day of Pilgrim Thanks.

It was a day once marked by family and that smell coming from the kitchen.  At night we gathered to watch the annual presentation of The Wizard of Oz and a few years later, It's a Wonderful Life, not to mention a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.  Now we sit with plates full on our TV trays and watch the game.

Thanksgiving is the day before the big holiday...yep Black Friday.