Why We All Need Thanksgiving

There is no official Thanksgiving in the United Kingdom. There is a Harvest Festival celebration in schools and churches here in October but many people are unfortunately barely aware of it. For those who are, the Harvest Festival celebration brings a focus to the blessings of the harvest and also to charitable giving. However, on the whole Harvest Festival does not bring a broader attitude of gratitude into the mix and it does not include everyone. This is why we all need Thanksgiving, a specific day marked out to corporately celebrate our blessings, and think about giving to others who may not be as blessed.

We have always kept Canadian Thanksgiving in October at our house. Although I am a naturalised British citizen, and have lived here more than half my life, I am Canadian by birth and enjoy keeping my family’s traditions. We also normally celebrate American Thanksgiving in November with a lovely American friend and her family, Both of these celebrations bring us joy, keep our minds on the positive and remind us to be grateful.

But Why Do We All Need A Thanksgiving Day?

Without some sort of official corporate non-denominational celebration of gratitude for our blessings, there is a risk people rush discontented through their lives. Assailed by advertising and the media, it’s easy to be swallowed up by the culture of “I want” where our day to day blessings are simply ignored.

We Need a Focus on Our Blessings

We are particularly guilty of ignoring our blessings here in the UK at the moment. With the help and encouragement of the media and lots of political turmoil, many of us embrace the negative and the gloomy. We even fill our children’s heads full of worries about an uncertain future. Society and the media preach the gospel of ‘I don’t know how you will ever manage’, ‘It’s going to be nearly impossible to build a career in this economy’, ‘You’ll be saddled with debt for the rest of your life’ and ‘You will never be able to buy your own home’ to our young people. I worry that if our young people hear these things repeated over and over, they will come to believe them. How on earth can anyone be expected to forge bravely into their future with that kind of attitude all around them?

An attitude of gratitude is key to not just surviving, but thriving. What we believe shapes our whole experience. Our country recovered from two World Wars and went on to enjoy great prosperity. I grew up in a challenging economic climate, although perhaps not as challenging as today. However, our life as a family is testament to the possibility that anything is possible.

A corporate celebration of Thanksgiving helps bring the focus back to what we have, and take it away from what we don’t have.

Why We Need to Be Grateful

Gratitude is the key to abundance, and that is one of the most important things we can teach our children. One thing I know for sure is that even during the darkest times of my life, I have had many, many things to be grateful for. While gratitude is at the centre of many faiths and religious beliefs, it is also something that is completely non-denominational. Being grateful for your blessings is incredibly important.

A corporate celebration of Thanksgiving would help us to focus on gratitude and help bring families and communities together.

Without gratitude for what you do have, it is pretty much impossible to create what you desire in your life.

On the Whole, We Are Blessed

Oh my, we are blessed. Yes the world is in a difficult state. Many are suffering from economic insecurity, but a large number of us have enough to eat and somewhere to live. We may even have the means to help others who are in need.

Bad things happen to everyone from time to time, but for most of us in the western world, water comes out of the tap. Light is available at the flick of a switch. It may be expensive, but we can buy normally buy food easily in the supermarkets. We live in relative safety, with police, a fire service, and hospitals available to us. We have the right to believe and say what we want, and we are free to worship as we choose. While many have suffered natural disasters this year, many of us have not. I could go on and on.

It’s Not Just About The Food

Thanksgiving is about more than the turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and pumpkin pie and cakes. It’s about being together, whether that is in real life or via Zoom or FaceTime, and being grateful together. We will say a heartfelt prayer of thanks for our blessings, and pray for others who are not so fortunate all over the world. In the days and weeks proceeding the celebrations, we also make a point of choosing to donate to charities and food banks.

Why Black Friday and Not Thanksgiving?

In the past few years, retailers in the UK have embraced Black Friday and all the copious consumption it promotes. However we still haven’t considered the possibility of a day to be grateful for what we already have. Society, the press and media encourage us to long for, buy and collect ‘more’ instead of being grateful for and making the most of what we have.