Thanksgiving

[whotheheckami]

It's November and Christmas is looming ahead of us. However, the fourth Thursday in November is when Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. The American Thanksgiving holiday grew out of various harvest festivals but has come to mean more than just giving thanks for crops. Harvest is still an important festival for Sarah and me, but we have lots of other

Comments

[darth_tigger]

1. No.

[liz_lowlife]

1. No!
2. By not happening.
3. See above.
4. We should have more bank holidays when the weather actually has a chance of being nice (June/July.)
5. Yes.
6. Yes.

[quercus]

No!

They're giving thanks for a bunch of them having made it to the US and having discovered fried poultry. We're giving thanks for a harvest, and we do that earlier. September or October for harvest festivals, not November. November is for Northern European paganism and sacrificing someone so that the Sun will remember to come back.

[sarah_mum]

So, no to thanksgiving, but YAY! to an anti-Ragnorock-fest?
Sounds cool, throw some more woodward on the fire.

[eremite]

1) I'm not sure that we have a national thing to be thankful for that isn't already covered, e.g. Remembrance Day.

2) n/a

3) We could have "Don't Let The Door Smack You On The Arse On The Way Out" day in September to celebrate the departure of the Pilgrim Fathers for the Americas: we all head for the nearest beach on a Sunday between 06 and 16 September, wave happily at the horizon for a few minutes, then have a piss-up.

4) David Zindell created the Festival of the Broken Dolls for abandoned AI programs in his fiction. I like the idea of a Festival of Dolls, a happy parade of loved and precious things, from broken down old teddy bears to exquisite china dollies swathed in lace. One proviso - Korean ball-jointed dolls go at the back.

[quercus]

If you think ball-jointed Dolfies are scary, how about Heart Robot?

[eremite]

I wonder if they'll put a heartlight into it, a la E.T.?

I like the concept, but that picture of it lying over someone's shoulder looks remarkably creepy - like the end of The Omen or something!

[inulro]

I could get behind no. 3.

[inulro]

Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on the first Monday in October, which I think is more sensible - it's much more in line with actual harvest times (by the end of November most of Canada is knee-deep in snow!).

I always have intentions of having a big Canadian Thanksgiving dinner at mine, but that would involve a) organisation and b) cooking, neither of which is an activity I'm any good at.

[whotheheckami]

I would love to see Harvest made a more secular event in the UK and become both a celebration of Thanks for all sorts of things as well as awareness of life - I would favour a bank holiday on a Friday toward the end of September when there's a reasonable chance of some fine weather.