It’s a massive holiday in America and one which I really didn’t know much about until I started working for About.com, writing Thanksgiving projects and ‘chatting’ with fellow writers based in the US. I’d always assumed it was alike a super-sized Harvest Festival, however it is so much more than that. Thanksgiving is regarded as a secular holiday and therefore it is celebrated by my Jewish, Muslim and Sikh colleagues, as well as the various shades of Christian plus the Pagans, Humanists and agnostics (what a colourful bunch). Although many of them have special celebrations in December and January, they don’t all fall on the same day so the holidays are dotted around, but Thanksgiving is the one that everyone can join in with, regardless of who, if anyone, they give thanks to.
Of course, now after 8 years of writing rubber stamping projects for Thanksgiving, I’m pretty used to it and the customs. I like the idea of thinking about the things to be thankful for, rather than thinking about things to be sorrowful for.
We’ve got a bit of problem with fleas at the moment and we’d run out of flea spray so I ordered some more yesterday and took delivery of it just a few minutes ago. I had a flea yesterday jumping around inside of my t-shirt which I couldn’t get to and it was driving me to distraction. Therefore today I am thankful for the quick delivery of flea spray and getting rid of the little blighters!