There are those in my family who prefer Thanksgiving, with its emphasis on food, family, rest and more food, to it's soon-to-come counterpart Christmas.
Christmas, at least in my family, also has its share of food and family, but it seems to offer very little rest, and much running around. And then there is that added distraction of gifts and the pressure to buy the "just-right one" that can, for some, take away all the goodness that is Christmas.
So, for these folks, Thanksgiving is their holiday of choice. It focuses on what we ought to focus on all year all: Thankful living. You may remember that Thanksgiving was first conducted in December 1621, when the Pilgrims had their three-day feast in Plymouth Rock to celebrate the bountiful harvest of the new world. The event brought together the community.
But, did you know that Thanksgiving didn't become an official holiday until 1863, 200 years later, when President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November a national day of thanksgiving? So, of course, we, as a nation, weren't voluntarily thankful from year to year, but have been commanded by our Chief Executive Officer to become thankful. And well we should be!
We have much to be thankful for. Every day. And it's possible that thankful living will go a long way to helping us enjoy thankful giving at Christmas. As it is said, and I’m sure you know, it is more blessed to give than to receive.
In more of the "did you know" category:
That the most popular Thanksgiving dinner includes turkey, cranberries, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie?
That the biggest producers of turkeys are the states of Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia, Missouri and California? Did you know that Americans raise 649 million pounds of cranberries, 1.6 billion pounds of sweet potatoes, and 998 million pounds of pumpkin?
In addition to domestically grown and raised Thanksgiving food, the U.S. also imports $5.2 million worth of live turkeys from Canada, $2.2 million worth of cranberries (also from Canada), and $2.3 million dollars worth of sweet potatoes, most from the Dominican Republic.
Did you know that there are at least three American towns named after Thanksgiving dinner's main course? There's Turkey, Texas, with 496 residents; Turkey Creek, La., with 357 residents; and Turkey, N.C., with 267 residents. There are also eight places andtownships named Cranberry and 20 places named Plymouth.
These Thanksgiving tidbits were compliments of http://www.holidays.net/thanksgiving/didyouknow.htm …
Dianne Owens is the editor of the Marion Star & Mullins Enterprise and wishes everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving, to be followed by an equally wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or other holiday of choice.
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