Because we have always done it! You could say this is the reason -- it's the nature of a holiday. We celebrate it every year because it's on the calendar. It's an institution, established long ago by religious tradition or more recently by government action. There is something in us that likes the tradition, the anticipation, the repetition; knowing there's a day on the calendar when we don't have to work (if we're lucky), when we can eat delicious food (if we're lucky), and when we will be surrounded by people we love (again, if we're lucky). Because we've always done it, it's hard to imagine passing the time between Halloween and Christmas without Thanksgiving.

 

It's a day for family. Some quick Google research tells us that in 2014 an estimated 39 million U.S. families have members who will travel some distance on Thanksgiving, or approximately 46.3 million people. Although many millions of us fly, it is estimated that 91 percent of Thanksgiving trips are by car, and 56 percent of those drivers will travel at least 100 miles; the average long-distance trip is 214 miles. It's clear family members go to great lengths to get together for Thanksgiving.

  

But why travel all that distance? Because humans are creatures of connection. Remember the old Broadway song lyrics, "People who need people are the luckiest people in the world." We all need one another. The connections of family and tribe are primal, as old as our species. There are stories, legends, and traditions throughout history that celebrate family, so a holiday, especially one like Thanksgiving, is linked inexorably to family connection, whatever kind of family that may mean.

 

It's all about the food. And now, of course, we come to maybe the biggest reason for Thanksgiving. Tradition and family aside, you still look forward to a feast. It all began with food, nearly four centuries ago. However, did you know that turkey was not a part of that first Thanksgiving? A story in the Washington Post tells us it was more likely venison.

 

Today we invest time and money to consume more than 51 million turkeys at Thanksgiving. We spend $2.9 billion on Thanksgiving dinner, an average of $56 per household. It takes more than five hours to cook a stuffed 24-pound turkey at 325 degrees, and if it is a frozen turkey, it takes nearly a week to thaw in the fridge.

 

Think of the many different and appealing recipes, which include everything from mushrooms to apples and even sausage, just for the side dish that is cooked inside the turkey -- called "dressing" on the first helping, "filling" on the second, and "stuffing" after the third. Speaking of side dishes, according to foodreference.com, Americans consume approximately 80 million pounds of cranberries, and delish.com tells us that of the 2.4 billion pounds of sweet potatoes produced in the U.S., each person eats about half a pound at Thanksgiving dinner, which amounts to nearly 160 million pounds. We are already needing to loosen our belt buckles, and we haven't even covered all the other Thanksgiving dinner extras, such as mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, carrots, green bean casserole, squash, and cornbread. It's amazing anyone ever has room for the pumpkin pie.

 

Or is it all about football? Now let's talk about football. It would probably be a good sign of a healthy nation if we could report that most people went outside and played touch football, but on Thanksgiving 2014, 84 million people were inside celebrating the National Football League in front of the TV. It's questionable whether the mix of non-activity, intense excitement, and high-caloric snacks produces a thankful heart, but there is no question that pro football has a sacred place on the Thanksgiving agenda.

 

If you are a football lover, you know there is nothing better than the excitement and camaraderie of watching a complex, dynamic, and compelling game with people you love in the comfort of your living room, surrounded by terrific food. However, the online magazine NY Metro Parents offers this observation -- "The football games that dominate the Thanksgiving airwaves do more to break families apart then bring them together," and goes on to suggest ways to make the game fun for the whole family.

 

There is even a website that offers football alternatives -- 25 things you can do while the game is on -- ranging from volunteering in a soup kitchen to playing board games, to going on a scavenger hunt, to creating a family talent show. That these alternatives need to be suggested at all, points again to the pervasiveness of football on the Thanksgiving holiday, and the great pleasure that many family members derive from it, while others definitely do not.

 

It is woven into our history. Thanksgiving has a rich and interesting history, and for some of us there is an underlying sense that we are standing in that historical line when we gather around the table and remember grateful pilgrims and friendly Native Americans. But wait! There are some inaccuracies.

 

The first Thanksgiving in 1621 was not the kick-off to an annual turkey-dinner tradition. In fact, there was no turkey. Sweet potatoes were unheard of at the time, and though there may have been something cooked using pumpkin, it was not a pie. There most likely were cranberries, but not in a sauce. The day did not become an annual tradition for many years. In 1789 President George Washington announced a national day of Thanksgiving, but only for that year. About 70 years later, a very patriotic magazine editor and author named Sara Josepha Hale, after years of campaigning for it, was able to persuade President Lincoln, at the height of the Civil War, to proclaim Thanksgiving as a national holiday -- on the final Thursday of every November. President Roosevelt later moved Thanksgiving up to make the Christmas shopping season longer during the Depression. But no one liked this change, and two years later, in 1941, Roosevelt signed a bill sending the holiday back to the fourth Thursday, where it remains to this day.

 

Unlike Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, or New Year's Day, which have centuries of religious or cultural roots, Thanksgiving has a unique American flavor. When we sit down around that bountiful table covered with good things, we know there is a rich trail of culture and custom that brought us there.

 

It's a time for being thankful to God. The pilgrims were a deeply religious people and their gratitude on that first day of thanks was to God. The food and football-laden holiday of the present seems a far stretch from that day of sober and serious observance. Nevertheless, just by stopping all our activity and enjoying the goodness of food, friends, family, and even football, we are tacitly acknowledging our gratification in the goodness of life. Even in excess there is a seed of gratitude. And in those lovely moments when we transcend all the trimmings and hoopla, and feel our deep connections with one another, we know that the day really is about the spiritual essence of personal gratitude. Of course there is thankfulness in other holidays, but it is an element of a larger reality -- birth, death, resurrection, rescue from oppression, independence. Thanksgiving is the one day when we give thanks for the sake of thanks itself. Maybe that's why it sometimes seems self-indulgent. It's not about something big -- some life-and-death matter. We just stop and raise our glass and fill our plate to God and goodness and life itself. What a cornucopia of good things Thanksgiving is! May it be so for you!