Another Side of Thanksgiving

I suppose my last post was a little mean, and maybe I was feeling sorry for myself that I was missing out on Thanksgiving with my family in Wisconsin, being here in Vienna and all. I feel much better after partaking in a Thanksgiving party put on by my friend Jake - though I could have skipped the cooking for oodles of people part of the holiday (which Jake did most of anyway). Gross consumerism (re: Black Friday) is also evident everywhere, not just in the US. I can see it quite plainly just walking out my door onto Mariahiferstrasse, the Madison Avenue of Vienna, especially at this time of the year - Christmas shopping is in full swing.

Here are some photos of the Thanksgiving party:

It really amazed me how much effort Jake went through to get a dinner for ten prepared (with all the fixings). I come from the "lazy" school of entertaining, I guess. My mom never makes anything gourmet for our holiday celebrations - it would probably never go over with the traditional side of the family anyway. She normally does recipes she knows by heart, that take as little effort as possible, e.g. scalloped potatoes instead of mashed so she doesn't have to peel 6 pounds of potatoes. In any case, she always has time to make her own bread, which is really the best part of the meal, in my opinion. And really, who can blame her? I'm a pretty lazy chef myself.

Giving Thanks and All That Jazz

Norman Rockwell's Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving. T-Day. Turkeyfest. Being a vegetarian, I'm pretty iffy about the holiday. Among other reasons, including my opinion that Thanksgiving brings out all the bad stereotypes non-Americans have of the United States and America. Shall I elaborate?

That's probably a good idea, since most people probably have no idea what I'm talking about.

1. Stuffing yourself until you can't move. Why does this iconic American holiday have to involve eating like a pig?  Can't we be thankful for what we've got without making and serving enough food to feed a continent, take up room in the refrigerator and be thrown out at the end of the month because we get sick of eating the same thing two weeks in a row? Or, have never touched certain leftovers (cranberry sauce, I'm looking at you).

2. Football. Although the Packers are undefeated (and my hometown pride really only kicks in when they're doing well), I am not actually much of a football fan, and I am even less of a fan of the tradition my family seems to have of shoveling forkfuls of rich, heavy food (supposed to be enjoyed slowly with conversation and company) just to catch the first touchdown - or kickoff, or whatever. Or even bringing the turkey and fixin's into the living room (freshly shampooed carpet be damned). What's the difference between that and any Sunday in football season, aside from substituting a turkey dinner with a delivery pizza - or a can of Cheez Wiz and a box of Ritz crackers?

3. Thanksgiving propaganda, i.e. pretending that America is a "melting pot" full of multicultural "tolerance" and "appreciation" when in fact after the first Thanksgiving - when the Wampanoags saved the Pilgrims' butts that winter of 1620-1621 - there was zero tolerance for anyone outside the Plymouth colony. For example, Squanto went to sea on a British vessel a couple of years after the "first" Thanksgiving as one of the eariliest New World interpreters (being basically bilingual), and came home years later to find his village had been destroyed by white settlers. Who does shit like that? And then brags about it by turning it into a national holiday? Americans, apparently. My beef is that, unlike Germans and Austrians, who own up to the Holocaust and anti-Semitism (most of the time), Americans sweep the entire history of slavery, Manifest Destiny and discrimination under the rug. Discovering the truth as a college student really put me off wanting to celebrate Thanksgiving. Sure, things are getting better. The History Channel at least has some quasi-informative documentaries that mention the Wampanoags. This article from Education World touches a bit more on the subject as it is taught in the classroom.

4. Black Friday. The absolute most disgusting aspect about Thanksgiving to me is the day after. When gorging yourself of turkey and pumpkin pie wasn't enough, you can empty your wallet a full month early to get Christmas presents for everyone on your list - that is if you don't get stampeded by angry housewives snatching up HDTVs, Chanel perfume and American Idol video games. Consumerism is king, apparently. What happened to caring about each other? Like what Thanksgiving - and Christmas, for all it's worth - is supposed to mean? Getting together with family and celebrating how wondrous and beautiful life is, not showing how much you love someone by what you've spent on them, or how early you got up on the day after Thanksgiving to get it for them. This year my sister is working at Younkers in Green Bay, and she doesn't even get to enjoy a full day off - she has to go in at midnight to field the Black Friday sales. Now, seriously. How ridiculous is it to make people working in retail skimp out on a FEDERAL HOLIDAY just because you want to buy crap you don't even need?

All that said, I don't dislike the idea behind Thanksgiving: sharing what you have with the people you love, giving thanks for all that you've been given in your life, taking the time to enjoy the company of loved ones, getting away from work for an extended weekend. Americans need to do these things more often. I guess, living in Austria, where every other saint's day is a day off of school, it feels like Thanksgiving is celebrated once a month, or maybe more: sharing good food with the people you love, spending time away from work and technology and just enjoying being a human being. It's a shame Americans seem to need an excuse to do this - a national holiday set aside to remember to be thankful, rather than feeling this way all the time.