Thanksgiving

A Happy Thanksgiving to all our US hobbits.
May your turkeys be well and truely stuffed!

We've been busy getting ready here for the past two days, despite the fact that the kitchen sink is clogged and all the plumbers in the area are closed or busy. But we have people coming over soon and I'm really looking forward to it. The turkey is in the oven and will be done soon. I'm just taking a quick breather right now.

Also, I'm thrilled to see that the emoticon is getting some use.

What exactly is it you are supposed to be being thankful for?

Within living memory when agriculture was at the center of much of American rural life, it has always been a harvest festival. It was a time when all the crops were in and the winter's hay was in the loft. It was a time for gathering with family and taking stock of everybody's needs before the long winter set in, and to share one last feast before going onto winter rations. It got formalized and the Massachusetts Pilgrim/Indian myth attached in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but farm families always knew what it was really about!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

For us it's just about being thankful for friends, family, stability, and stuff like that. We always invite a bunch of people over and eat a ton of food. Also, there's always several big football games (and the Cowboys always play by tradition ).

Happy Thanksgiving!

So nothing to do with sex then? Reason I mention that is european midwinter festivals were always thinly disguised sex ceremonies, with wonderful fun figures like Cock Robin in them.
The thinking being pregnancies begun in midwinter would see babies born about the time of the next harvest when hopefully there was food in abundance.
Xmas was the main one of these - Thanksgiving is a little earlier though.

This is why I always smile at xmas time when people say this is still a Christian country- I dont know about elsewhere but the percentage of our population who spend it in christain prayer and contemplation, compared to the percent who spend it like our pagan ancestors did, getting drunk and trying to find someone to have sex with, speaks for itself- definetly still a pagan holiday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

(I wan't a Fjordianland emoticon)

Well, I guess I'll just post it again, HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving. Just once I would like to experience Thanksgiving, it sounds such a cozy and friendly festival.

You'll just have to visit America in November one year, Mrs Figg.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:So nothing to do with sex then? Reason I mention that is european midwinter festivals were always thinly disguised sex ceremonies, with wonderful fun figures like Cock Robin in them.

Well since the tradition is to gather with your immediate and extended family.....

Just back from Mom's house. A small gathering this year, only 10 of us but a 24 pound turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, and 3 different salads, plus 5 different pies for dessert that all need to be appreciated equally. Then much visiting, getting to know the new fiance, football, nap, repeat step A. It's really quite a civilized holiday!

Christianity is a synthesis between Jusaism and Paganism. It amazes me that a lot of people don't know this.

getting to know the new fiance- David

Blimey your mother doesnt muck about- invites you round for Thansgiving and springs a fiance on you!

thanksgiving sounds like christmas without Jesus, angels, a tree in ur living room and no presents. like a cosy family dinner, but having to get properly dressed?

The Act of "Thanksgiving" sounds such a great idea, must feel wonderful to have friends & family sharing & being so close. Mmmm,can smell the turkey now! Christmas is meant to be like Thanksgiving I guess, but,as time goes by Im thinking its getting to be less & less about caring & loving the ones around you,& more about materialistic things.
Happy Thanksgiving ! Have a great time!

Its a good excuse for a huge nosh up. I feel hungry just thinking about it.

I hope you hid the weird veggies from the 'fiance' Dave. spill the beans, who's fiance is it?

I bet everyone brings a suspicous veg with them to Daves Family Gatherings. Theres probably a huge centerpiece of veg that would make a lady of the night blush.

I'm content but I know it is American tradition to eat till you pass out & I don't want to be un-patriotic so yes I will eat again today. PIECOMA, PIE COMA.

Q: What if the Pilgrims shot a bobcat instead of a turkey? A: We'd be eating pussy for Thanksgiving!
Q: Which side of the turkey has the most feathers? A: The outside
Q: What do you get when you cross a turkey with an octopus? A: Enough drumsticks for Thanksgiving
Q: Why dont people in the ghetto celebrate thanksgiving? A: KFC isnt open on holidays.
I'm excited about Thanksgiving because I love unwelcome parenting advice from relatives I see twice a year. Thanksgiving is great because people tend to speak less when food is lodged in their mouths.
If I was a turkey, I’d be doing everything I could to taste terrible right now.
For the first time, we are going to have a HAPPY Thanksgiving. This year, I am stuffing the turkey with Prozac!
Happy Turkey Day, America! Don’t forget to name the turkey and make everyone uncomfortable.
Can a turkey jump higher than the Empire State Building?
A: Yes - a building can't jump at all.
Bob and Martha have been married for 15 years. Every morning for 15 years, Bob wakes up, farts loudly, rolls over onto his back and gets up for work.


Every morning for 15 years, Martha says, "One of these days, you're gonna fart your guts out!"


One Thanksgiving morning, Martha's preparing the turkey and gets an idea. Before her husband gets up, she creeps upstairs and places the turkey innards in his pajama bottoms, giggling to herself.


Well, later that morning, Bob wakes up and goes through his morning ritual. He screams as he goes running into the bathroom. Martha laughs, but is concerned after noticing that Bob has been in the bathroom for 3 hours.


She runs upstairs, and is about to knock on the door, when Bob opens up, pale as a ghost. He says, "You were right. You were right. I did fart my guts out, but by the grace of God, and these two fingers, I got them back up there again."

halfwise wrote:
It was a little unclear, should you be congratulating you or your mom on the new fiance?

You should be congratulating both of us on NOT having the new fiance!

Despite what the name makes it sound like, Thanksgiving is 90% about the food and eating yourself sick. The thing that makes it stand apart is the traditional foods which you normally only see in combination on Thanksgiving. All these other sentimental things (family, giving thanks, etc) are either shoe-horned in or just come along for the ride.

I don't quite agree here. I agree that a food component is obligatory, but different families and communities seem to put primary focus on different things. Foodies may focus on the food, vegans may focus on vegan food, religious and spiritual families and communities may focus on prayer or meditation, sports junkies focus on the football, proud grandparents focus on grandchildren, farm families such as ours may talk a lot about the crop we just got in. Although there are templates, it's sort of a build-you-own holiday.

The standout community is Native Americans though. Some of my friends take exception to the Pilgrim myth and refer to the holiday as "Thank-You-for-Stealing-our-Land-and-Killing-our-People-Day".

"Thank-You-for-Stealing-our-Land-and-Killing-our-People-Day"

Ah, finally an honest holiday!

kind of puts a damper on the proceedings.

Mrs Figg wrote: kind of puts a damper on the proceedings.

Mmm...no, not really. It's only a problem if you forget that it's an ancient harvest festival and you buy into the "Pilgrim First Thanksgiving" foundation myth which was more or less invented 250 years later. But I think it's definitely appropriate to acknowledge where much of America's wealth and prosperity came from!