(no subject)

[purpletigron]

I suppose that `Thanksgiving' is another holiday which has been `reclaimed' from its dark historical beginnings...

Do non-Christians in countries where Thanksgiving is celebrated, view it as a non-religious/non-denominational holiday?

Comments

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

They do, at least in the U.S. It's one of the things I like about Thanksgiving, in fact -- that it's the only major holiday that everybody can celebrate. (Well, that and the fact that it's the only major holiday that's all about food and not much else. ;-)

-J

[dafna]

Just to add to Jae's comment: It's very much celebrated by everyone -- I think because it's a holiday about immigrants, and we all have that in our background, whether it was our parents or our great-greats. (Of course, this doesn't apply to the Native Americans, who have every right to be as hostile to this holiday as I am toward Xmas -- though for the most part, they don't seem to be as much as you'd think.)

I'd argue with the "only major holiday everyone can celebrate" line, though. The 4th of July is like this as well. In fact, I've celebrated both holidays with other Americans while living in Israel. One memorable Thanksgiving dinner in Jerusalem was with a bunch of religious Jews and when it came to say the after-dinner grace there was a pause, because there are different blessings for a holiday or not a holiday and it *felt * like a holiday to us, even though of course it's not a Jewish holiday. (Finally, someone remembered it was the beginning of the month, which *does* count, so we wound up saying the holiday blessings. Nothing like a technical out.)

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

I would have thought that some of the earliest immigrants (almost all of us are immigrants, even in the UK :-) would have found Thanksgiving highly... post-ironic?