Thanksgiving

[ed45]

Any suggestions on how an atheist can celebrate Thanksgiving?

As a Christian, it used to be my favority Holiday but as a recent deconvert, I am emotionally conflicted. I appreciate my family, friends, health, material lifestyle, etc. but obviously I no longer "give thanks" to a god for such.

ed45

[Astreja]

We had our Thanksgiving a few weeks ago. I did up a nice dinner and we drank a toast to family, but no thanking of supernatural beings occurred.

In fact, even when I was living with my parents, I don't remember anyone thanking gods at Thanksgiving dinner.

[Vortex]

Think of it as a historical marker, in the tradition of Veterans' Day, or Arbor Day, or Guy Fawkes Day, or Bastille Day.

[LoneWolf]

Watch football and eat as much food as you want. Sound pretty secular to me :)

[smellincoffee]

I've never associated religion with Thanksgiving -- always with pilgrims eating with their Indian pals, before they ran them off the land to grow tobacco.

[Writer@Large]

The only bit of religious for an atheist to have to ignore during Thanksgiving is the "thanks to God" part. Consider thanking the PEOPLE instead, those who make your life good. It's in the same sort of vein that we would credit doctors for curing our cancer, while the religious thank God; or we would credit firefighters first for saving our house from a fire, while the religious thank God. It's the people around me that make me happy, and so it is to them that I give thanks.

And then eat lots of turkey and stuffing and such, watch a parade, and get to bed early so that you can be at the mall early next morning.

--W@L

[Godless Dave]

Cook, eat, and drink. Pretty easy.

[Koiyotnik]

Weh? There's a "thanks to God" aspect to Thanksgiving? (okay, only being a tiny bit serious there)

Even as a little kid I just took it as being grateful and appreciative of what you have, and not to some sort of force that granted it to you.

Thanksgiving has always been my favourite holiday because it gives me an excuse to go overboard with cooking (even though I do that anyway).

[EverLastingGodStopper]

I give thanks to my mother-in-law, she's an incredibly wonderful cook, and Thanksgiving with her and her partner is a delightful celebration of family and feasting.

[Steve Schlicht]

Thanksgiving has not ever been considered a religious celebration in my family.

It is a time of fall celebration, reflection and appreciation of this life! All of the children are involved in the preparation of our family feast (which can be very entertaining!) and we all tell stories and play games while the turkey cooks.

This year, prior to our own family celebration, we'll all prepare and deliver food to the elderly and infirm in our community who would not otherwise get to have such a hearty meal.

For those interested in such activism, I'm sure your local food pantry or city council would have information on such participation closer to home (or try a google search and see what you can come up with).

Anyone interested in keeping up with our Feed the Needy activism can read all about it as it progresses here:

Feed the Needy (http://humanism.meetup.com/164/calendar/5228488/)

:)

Steve

[Majestyk]

Being "thankful" doesn't require a target.

Giving thanks does not require a response.

We can give thanks to mtyhical creatures, nature, world, universe, country, family, friends, voices in our heads...

The secular version of the holiday is, for at least one day, to not dwell on what we don't have, to appreciate what we do (no matter how meager that may be), and to share that sentiment with others.

Theist or atheist, that's something we all need to do or be reminded of, occasionally.

[Dentarthurdent]

Any suggestions on how an atheist can celebrate Thanksgiving?

Exactly the same way you used to, minus the god stuff.

[Enlighten Me]

Just enjoy the day, and focus on being grateful for all that is good in your life...

[Pierre Bezukhov]

I celebrate Thanksgiving with some Thai friends of mine. It's always throws me to have rice and spring rolls with my turkey.

[I. C. Unicorns]

Thanksgiving religious? It never seemed that way other than a muttered prayer before the meal. I think the damn fool pilgrims were thankful to be alive. But then, what wasn't religious to a pilgrim?

[I. C. Unicorns]

Of course Thanksgiving is religious. God intended for us to eat turkey deep fried in trans fats! gobble gobble amen.

[garrisonjj]

I am now an atheist, but Thanksgiving will still be the same. My vodka martinis, Macy's parade, saying "grace" eating big meal and ushuring in xmas with watching "It's a Wonderful life!" (still my favorite movie of all time).
Same with x mas, I'll go through all the motions, even mass and communion out of necessity while saying FUCK all religion in my heart. Case closed, everyone is happy.
Religion is irrelevant so fuck it, its like going to the dentist. Sometimes you have to do it, then its over!

[Alter]

I'm giving thanks to my ancestors for not dying before they reproduced, and thanks to the various meme-generators/propagators who gave us a free society instead of a dictatorship. Yay for being born! Yay for living in a free country.

Oh, and thanks to the Butterball people, too. Yay for turkey!

[lynx]

I thanked the turkey for it's sacrifice.

[phrog]

Still a good day for family gathering. We eat, drink, and laugh a lot. Never a prayer is uttered.

[Derec]

Still a good day for family gathering. We eat, drink, and laugh a lot. Never a prayer is uttered.

Or eat, drink and be merry, as the Bible would say it. There you have your religious significance right there. Although, of course, the Bible makes it out to be something bad. :rolleyes:

[spamandham]

I celebrate it the same way everyone else does. Get together with family, make a big meal, drink, watch football, and :gasp: participate in the group prayer.

One of the nice things about being a freethinker is that there is no pointkeeper in the sky making sure you properly idolize your ideals. You can be a hypocrite if you want about this stuff and no-one cares. Why give up one god just to serve another? Serve yourself.

[Godless Dave]

Or eat, drink and be merry, as the Bible would say it.

That's not the Bible, I think it's Shakespeare.

[CelticChic]

I never viewed Thanksgiving as a xian holiday. I grew up in an atheist/agnostic house and the only time prayers were heard at TG was if we shared it with xian friends. We let them do their thanks thing and then ate lots and lots of food!

Some years we came up things we were thankful for in our lives, but god never came up...

[crazyfingers]

I've never seen Thanksgiving as even remotely religious.

Our thanksgiving tradition has us going for a hike in the woods around my parents house before dinner. Then we have dinner. Then we have desert. Then we sit around waiting for our tummies to shrink a bit before getting into the car and going home.

Since we got our kids, the time after dinner and before going home is when we break out the xmas specials and let the kids watch them for the first time of the season. Rudolph, Year Without a Santa Claus, Santa is Coming to Town, those kinds.

Thanksgiving has always been a secular thing in my family.

[Enlighten Me]

I thanked the turkey for it's sacrifice.

Ha-ha! Yeah----sacrifice a turkey to the god of gluttony!

[perfessor]

Here's a good essay (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-c-dennett/thank-goodness_b_33207.html) by Daniel Dennett, regarding the issue of giving thanks.

Yes, I did have an epiphany. I saw with greater clarity than ever before in my life that when I say "Thank goodness!" this is not merely a euphemism for "Thank God!" (We atheists don't believe that there is any God to thank.) I really do mean thank goodness! There is a lot of goodness in this world, and more goodness every day, and this fantastic human-made fabric of excellence is genuinely responsible for the fact that I am alive today. It is a worthy recipient of the gratitude I feel today, and I want to celebrate that fact here and now.