Thanksgiving is the time of year when we sit back, smell the turkey, stuff ourselves with too much good food, and then reflect on the good things that have happened to our families in the last year. Sometime during the day’s festivities—amid the turkey feast, football, and basketball games on TV, and visiting with family and friends—it may occur to you to wonder why we give thanks on this day.
Basically, we “give thanks” for the small and large successes, we have enjoyed throughout the year.
First, let’s reflect on why we have this holiday in the first place. Thanksgiving wasn’t about celebrating the conquering of a new land; it was a celebration of the harvest of crops produced by people who had freed themselves from an oppressive government. Both native landsmen and the new arrivals shared those meals long ago and celebrated together.
The first American Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621, to commemorate the harvest reaped by the Plymouth Colony after a harsh winter. In that year, Gov. William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving. The colonists celebrated it as a traditional English harvest feast, to which they invited the local Wampanoag Indians.
Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday wasn’t celebrated at Plymouth Rock, as lore would have, it but more than three hundred years later when the fourth Thursday of November was finally declared as the Thanksgiving holiday by President Franklin Roosevelt. Later it was ratified by Congress in 1941 as a federal holiday in deference to the retailers who thought that they needed the extra week before Christmas to help their bottom lines.
The Pilgrims seemed to have reason enough to celebrate a bountiful harvest. Finding enough food to survive was the driving force in those days. But what is our motivation for giving thanks today? After all, for most of us, restocking food supplies is no more complicated than driving to the neighborhood supermarket and buying a cartload of goodies.
There are, in fact, any number of reasons to celebrate today—and reasons to reflect on what we have.
We live in a wonderful area of the greatest nation on Earth. We enjoy several freedoms that many people elsewhere can only dream of. Even though America isn’t currently involved in a costly foreign war, there are signs of unrest among citizens because of partisan political bickering that rarely has a positive outcome.
In the “good old days” families gathered to exchange stories, reminisce about the year, and plan for next year’s gathering. The leaves had turned brilliant yellows, oranges, and reds, and snow was starting to fall in many places. This holiday meant that fall had fallen and a long winter was about to begin.
There were no football games, only the happy noises of children as they played after the meal, some homespun music, and the casual conversation of the adults.
Today of course, the retail world begins hawking its Christmas wares shortly after Halloween, long before Thanksgiving meals are even planned!
It is important for new arrivals to our land to understand the significance of this celebration. They too are freeing themselves from some sort of oppression, and their first Thanksgiving should celebrate both their newly found freedom and the “harvest” from a free market society.
Our ancestors celebrated the bounty of a new land, giving thanks for what nature and hard work provided. We can celebrate our good fortune, for being where we are and what we are as a nation.
Thanksgiving is too important of a holiday to waste on petty political acrimony. After all, this celebration is filled with precious memories of heaps of food, piles of dirty dishes, a comfortable easy chair, and football.
So, chill out and enjoy the day.
Ron Fink writes to the Sun from Lompoc. Send a letter for publication to letters@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 4, 2025.