Gearheart: A modern Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving began in 1621 as a three-day feast between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans to celebrate the harvest and thank God for all of the blessings they felt he’d bestowed upon them. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to be a national holiday, and he, too, wanted it to be a day to be thankful and praise God. Today, in 2014, Thanksgiving is frequently referred to as “Turkey Day,” and our primary concern is with stuffing ourselves as full as we possibly can with food.

I wasn’t around a hundred years ago, but I imagine that things were a bit different then than they are now. People probably sat around a dinner table with their families and spent time to pray and reflect on all of the things they were thankful for — and I’m betting the things they saw as blessings were things that we now take for granted. Things like food and a place to live; nowadays, we’re “thankful” for our cell phones and TVs.

Today’s Thanksgivings often consist of gathering around the TV (rather than the table), cracking open a beer and watching parades and football. Instead of relishing in the fact that the family is together, we post pictures on Instagram and statuses on Facebook and spend entirely too much time waiting on likes and comments to come pouring in.

I’ve always found it ironic that one day we’re meant to be so thankful, and the next day, it’s completely acceptable to be the greediest person alive. I say “the next day” because, in the past, Black Friday sales didn’t begin until 6 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving. Eventually, stores opened in even earlier morning hours. But within the past couple of years, our country has reached a whole new low, starting their sales at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving Day! Fist fights and arguments and complete disregard for fellow shoppers commences only hours after the Thanksgiving meal. With every year that passes, our Thanksgiving Day grows shorter, and our greediest day of the year grows longer.

Everyone celebrates holidays in his or her own way, and I totally get that. Some families watch the football game together, and others eat together at the table. It’s really entirely up to each person to decide how they want to enjoy the day. Some people still wait until early Friday morning to shop, and some are lined up before 8 p.m. And that’s OK, too… until you consider how many people have no choice but to be at work that day. I can only imagine their excitement when they learned that rather than enjoying an evening at home with their families, they get to spend the last part of Thanksgiving dealing with selfish, occasionally violent shoppers.

Personally, I’ll be spending my Thanksgiving Day with my family. I’ll eat way too much food, I’ll probably argue with my sisters and I’ll try to keep in mind the many things in my life that I have to be thankful for. And at the end of the day, I’m still going to be at home, rather than darkening such a beautiful holiday with all of the greed that’ll abound the following morning.

Ashley Gearheart is a first-year majoring in international business.