Thanksgiving is coming soon. I looked up some fascinating statistics for the holiday. Did you know the average person will consume 3000 calories in the Thanksgiving meal? That number jumps to 4500 for the entire day. And 91 percent of the people celebrating Thanksgiving will eat turkey (88 percent will eat some kind of pie). Thanksgiving is the busiest travel holiday in America and the day before is the busiest travel day of the year. The US isn’t the only country that celebrates the holiday. Others are Canada, Liberia, Germany, Brazil, and Saint Lucia. But imagine you are not in one of those countries. What would you say about Americans by how they celebrate Thanksgiving?
You would probably say we like to eat. I would hope you would also say we can be thankful for what we have. And we like to get together.
Holidays are special times. They aren’t normal. They change our routines. They change what we normally do. And this goes for the time leading up to the big day as much as the day itself. Let’s do a rundown of all of the major (and not-so-major) holidays and try to guess at how much time we spend preparing and celebrating each one. Of course the times listed are just guesses and can vary wildly depending on your family and what job responsibilities you have. But let’s give it a go anyway.
New Years Day: maybe a week
Martin Luther King’s Birthday, and President’s Day: maybe a day or so each.
Valentines Day: I would guess no more than a week (depending on how long it takes you to plan anything).
St. Patrick’s Day: maybe a day or so unless you have to organize an event like a parade
Easter: Maybe a week or two if you have to participate in an egg hunt and get candy and special baskets and clothes
Memorial Day: 1 day for me
Juneteenth: 1 day for me
Independence Day: 1 week at the most I would think, but your mileage may vary
Labor Day/Columbus Day/Veterans’s Day: Usually about 1 day each for me
Halloween: a month, especially if you decorate
Thanksgiving: two to three weeks, depending on whether or not you have to make travel plans
Christmas: a month at least
If you add all of those days you get something close to a third of the year. And a third of the year really means a third of your life. This is quite a lot of time.
What do our holidays say about us? I would say our culture is largely defined by them. If you want to know what a people care about, look at their holidays.
Now let’s examine the holidays for the early Israelites. Here is the list:
Sabbath: a day of rest
Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets) : The beginning of the ten days of repentance
Yom Kippur: The Day of Atonement
Succoth (Feast of Tabernacles): To remember how the children of Israel lived in booths/tents after leaving Egypt
Passover: Commemorating the Exodus event
Unleavened Bread: The first day after Passover, meant to help remember to give thanks to God for the first fruits of the harvest
Shavuot (Pentecost/Feast of Weeks): traditionally the day Moses received the Law from the Lord
Purim: to remember how God delivered God’s people in ancient Persia through Esther
Hanukkah (Feast of Lights): remembering the rededication of the temple by the Maccabees and the miracle where one day of oil for the lamp stand lasted eight days
Now what do these holidays tell us about the early Israelites? I would say they also like to eat. But in general they want to remember special religious events in their past. God is in each of these days.
Where is God in our holidays? What should we be celebrating? How much of your celebrations are secular and how much are spiritual?
I hope you think about that as you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner this year. Try to think about how you can make the special days of your life even more special by inviting God into them.
God Bless