Thanksgiving Makes No Sense

[Vincent Vega]

weird passive-aggression

qft

[PhuturePriest]

[Credo in Deum]

I rarely get to see my relatives so Thanksgiving is a time for me to prepair good food -food I do not get a chance to eat on a regular basis- and it's a time when I get to enjoy my family's company. Provided they show up that is.

The reality is there are two ways to be thankful for the things we have. One way is by acts of mortification, while the other is to enjoy the things we have to the fullest, provided we do not make these things an end in themselves.

Plus I'm against bread and water fasting on Thanksgiving since this option would obviously give Phetus too much free time to hop online and ruin my paid day off while i peruse PM for holiday threads. May there always be a large feast that needs preparing so he can be kept busy all day long. ;)

[Luigi]

When Thanksgiving was first celebrated, and for a good many years after that, there was no refrigeration and only a few (none too safe) methods of preserving protein-based foods. Fruits and vegetables could be preserved better, but not perfectly. 

 

So, in addition to the "let's celebrate by eating some of each of the good things God has given us" approach, eating food before it went bad was the wiser choice - even if that meant overeating. Because at the same time that there was no refrigeration and few methods for preserving protein-based foods, there was also no central heat. As the weather turned colder, calorie-loading had some survival advantages.

 

Fasting was reserved for late winter-early spring, when food supplies were running low. It's called Lent.  

[Cherie]

I can't believe you don't like Thanksgiving?! (Or cheese?! Or butter?!) Who doesn't like Thanksgiving?! (Or cheese?! Or butter?!)

I shall pray heartily for thee, sad sir.

Oh, and my response to your coffee/tea thing is: ITALY! Though you got a really good list of all the numerous countries who prefer coffee to tea. Try coffee in Rome and you'll give a bother. I still try to reproduce the glorious coffee I had there, to no avail. :(

[IgnatiusofLoyola]

I haven't eaten Thanksgiving dinner for the past couple of years because I not only have diabetes, but also liver problems that mean I have to limit not only my carbs, but also my fats, especially animal fats. It's a good thing that we don't know what our future holds, because I would have been horrified to learn that there would be a time in my future when I had no butter in my refrigerator (and I can't stand margarine), and that Haagen Daz would be a thing of the past (for me, at least).

 

So, in a traditional Thanksgiving dinner I would be able to eat the turkey, but without the skin (the best part IMO), corn and string beans (without the butter and other stuff), and salad. I haven't eaten pie in two years--the crust (the best part) has a shocking level of carbs and fat. Sure, I could exercise portion control, but who wants to eat a quarter cup of mashed potatoes with no butter or gravy? For me, it's just easier to do without. I hope the day will come when I won't feel deprived. But, for right now, although I have built up SOME self-control, to put me in a room with a lot of high carb, high fat, delicious foods would be like offering a newly-dry alcoholic an open bar. Definitely possible to abstain, but also very difficult. I still salivate when I think of a fresh roll dripping with butter. Plus, I don't like calling attention to myself, and my plate would look very different from the other diners at the table.

 

Actually, it is possible to have a Thanksgiving dinner that meets my dietary restrictions. The last Thanksgiving I spent with my (diabetic) father, we had freshly caught Dungeness crab, and an avocado salad with a fresh salsa-type dressing. That's probably what the Indians living in Northern California would have eaten had the Pilgrims landed there. However that meal isn't exactly common or typical in the Midwest where I now live.

 

The most unusual and best tasting (although far from joyful) Thanksgiving dinner my family had was when my parents were newly separated. We decided to start new traditions, and since the whole family loved Chinese food, we went for a Chinese feast on Thanksgiving. To this day, I still prefer Peking Duck to turkey. (However, part of that is that with my new dietary restrictions, I eat a LOT of turkey--sans skin, of course--so turkey isn't really special anymore.)

[Not The Philosopher]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0NnpJb0NwY

[PhuturePriest]

I can't believe you don't like Thanksgiving?! (Or cheese?! Or butter?!) Who doesn't like Thanksgiving?! (Or cheese?! Or butter?!)

I shall pray heartily for thee, sad sir.

Oh, and my response to your coffee/tea thing is: ITALY! Though you got a really good list of all the numerous countries who prefer coffee to tea. Try coffee in Rome and you'll give a bother. I still try to reproduce the glorious coffee I had there, to no avail. :(

 

I love how you all take this thread as if it's a personal insult. :P

 

As for food, there are many foods I don't like, including things most people love.

Edited September 7, 2014 by The Phetus

[CatherineM]

We open our home to people without anywhere else to go. We gets lots of the mentally ill, homeless, and friends. We feed 2-3 dozen. Takes two big turkeys that I do in green enchilada sauce or mole. This year I'm doing half and half.

[Archaeology cat]

I even made a full Thanksgiving dinner in. Liverpool. Invited friends and had loads of fun. If your Thanksgiving is boring, you're doing it wrong.

[Archaeology cat]

I shall leave you with this quote from. Julia Child: If you're afraid of butter, use cream

[Socrates]

What a silly fetal thread.

But here's a few points anyway.

 

1)  While not Catholic, Thanksgiving is not really secular either (at least as originally intended).  The point is a national day of giving thanks to God.  Thanksgiving is pretty pointless without One to give thanks to.

 

2)  President Lincoln, who set the current date of Thanksgiving celebration, actually also appointed a national days of prayer and fasting during the war.  Strange as it may seem to us in this age of radical secularism, this was actually not an uncommon practice by presidents in less pc times.

 

3)  There's nothing wrong with feasting to celebrate our appreciation for God's goodness (as in Christmas and Easter).  Of course, if you want to make Thanksgiving about nothing but gorging yourself and watching football on TV, that's not the fault of the holiday itself, anymore than if you want to make Christmas all about runaway consumerism, or Easter all about stuffing your face with chocolates.

 

4) Thanksgiving is objectively a good thing.  Better to focus on spending it more prayerfully, rather than whining about it on teh interwebz.

 

Of course, if you'd rather spend it in hard labor and fasting, or whatever, that's your free choice.  No one's stopping you.

Edited September 8, 2014 by Socrates

[Vincent Vega]

What a silly fetal thread.

But here's a few points anyway.

 

1)  While not Catholic, Thanksgiving is not really secular either (at least as originally intended).  The point is a national day of giving thanks to God.  Thanksgiving is pretty pointless without One to give thanks to.

 

2)  President Lincoln, who set the current date of Thanksgiving celebration, actually also appointed a national days of prayer and fasting during the war.  Strange as it may seem to us in this age of radical secularism, this was actually not an uncommon practice by presidents in less pc times.

 

3)  There's nothing wrong with feasting to celebrate our appreciation for God's goodness (as in Christmas and Easter).  Of course, if you want to make Thanksgiving about nothing but gorging yourself and watching football on TV, that's not the fault of the holiday itself, anymore than if you want to make Christmas all about runaway consumerism, or Easter all about stuffing your face with chocolates.

 

4) Thanksgiving is objectively a good thing.  Better to focus on spending it more prayerfully, rather than whining about it on teh interwebz.

 

Of course, if you'd rather spend it in hard labor and fasting, or whatever, that's your free choice.  No one's stopping you.

 

I usually hate the whole "OMG someone i usually disagree with agrees with me LOL" schtick, but you actually make some good points here, Plato.