When people hear about Thanksgiving break, people think of this time to travel, take a vacation, go shopping, and start getting ready for Christmas. Thanksgiving however is a holiday where people have a nice dinner with family or people who you care about, and give thanks to all the things that have happened before the year ends. As the years go by, Christmas now has slowly been more advertised by companies, as well as people generally getting ready for the Christmas holiday. People spend money to get each other gifts–Some people go for the more expensive and extravagant gifts, while others get reasonable gifts for each other. When Halloween ends and November begins, people immediately get ready for Christmas, but Thanksgiving is slowly getting left in the shadows.
Back then pilgrims wanted to celebrate the harvest, as well as other blessings that happened in the past year. That was when they started to celebrate with a Harvest festival. Pilgrims shared this holiday with the Wampanoag people. It was a celebration for the harvest that slowly evolved from the celebration of harvest to a holiday where we share it together with people. People unofficially celebrated Thanksgiving until 1863 when Lincoln made it a national holiday. Roosevelt, having issues with the date, then announced that it will be celebrated the fourth Thursday of every November. Now it’s a holiday where we celebrate it with friends and family, giving thanks and sharing a big meal together.
Christmas is both a religious and non religious holiday. Originally Christmas was celebrated as the day Jesus Christ was born from the virgin Mary. Britannica reports, “December 25th was the first identified date of Jesus’s birth in 221 AD by Sextus Julius.” People would celebrate these miracles by going to church; they would call the mass Christ’s mass, which would soon then evolve to Christmas. Each little tradition of Christmas, such as the tree decorating, and gift giving all come from the events of Christ’s birth. But some people who also celebrate Christmas don’t associate God with these festive holidays. Christmas is now a holiday where all people celebrate Christmas, by celebrating with gift giving, having a meal with family, and some people go to mass to celebrate Christ’s birth.
In recent years, Christmas has become a more popular holiday. November is the month where we celebrate Thanksgiving; the time of year where some families like to gather together and celebrate by giving thanks. This holiday is a tradition that is slowly being overshadowed by the festive activities of Christmas. But despite them having separate months where they celebrate each individual holiday, people have started to celebrate Christmas as soon as November starts. Christmas is the holiday that takes the stage in the last two months at the end of year.
“It’s a dead holiday,” Adrian Popoka, a senior and ASB secretary said. He explained, “It’s mostly a get together. You have dinner with people and get together with your family,”. He is a really, really big fan of the Chrisrmas season. He believes that Christmas is a more celebrated holiday and that makes Thanksgiving a forgotten holiday. “I think everyone forgets about Thanksgiving,” Uzziel Cruz, a senior and ASB vice president said. “I feel like a bunch of people skip over that and go straight into the Christmas decorations,” He believes that Christmas is the holiday that most people advertise for because of the festive decorations and the festive cheer; while in his eyes they don’t have much decorations for Thanksgiving. “Sure there are turkeys and pumpkins for thanksgiving, but for christmas we have candy canes, snowmen, trees, santa and more,” Uzziel continues.
But despite people saying that it’s a forgotten holiday, this holiday still has meaning to families. “Some families have their own traditions that they enjoy celebrating during Thanksgiving,” Valerie Lima, a senior who is president of the class of 2026. Some people have started to create new traditions, such as Friendsgiving; a potluck-like dinner where they have dinner with close friends. Families who do celebrate Thanksgiving are dedicated to whatever traditions they have, such as going out to see a parade for thanksgiving, or competing in a contest to win a free turkey for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time where families celebrate together. Families follow or create new traditions each year, and these memories are what keep this holiday alive.
Despite Christmas being a popular holiday, Thanksgiving is the holiday where they should be spending time with family. People never know when they’ll get busy to the point you won’t be able to celebrate and make new memories with their family and friends. Thanksgiving is a holiday people overlook, but it’s a special holiday to some families who enjoy being able to spend quality time with their loved ones. The meaning of Thanksgiving has changed over the years. But now, Thanksgiving is the time of year where people celebrate with friends and family, and give thanks to the year before, as well as the people that are with them.
