Courting Controversy

Let's talk about the elephant in the room in regards to Thanksgiving: Native Americans.

Some holiday curmudgeons insist that Thanksgiving doesn't warrant recognition because it celebrates a "story of murder."  The sentiment is held by many and observed in many ways.  Some celebrate an Un-Thanksgiving to recognize the deaths of Native Americans. History books are rife with guilt-laden accounts of how horrific the Europeans treated the Native Americans.

Okay, we get it, the Native Americans might have gotten a raw deal eventually.  Did that happen on Thanksgiving? No.  So why pick on this holiday?  Do you see anyone else doing similar things?

1. Do Jewish people protest the recognition of Oktoberfest because of Germany's role in the Holocaust?
2. Does ... everybody ... protest the celebration of Christmas because of the role Christianity played in oppressing native cultures the world over?
3. Do the middle eastern nations get angry when Americans celebrate our Independence Day?
4. Do Southerners get all pissed off every President's Day because of Abraham Lincoln's role in the Civil War?
5. How about French people being uppity when Cinco de Mayo comes around?
6. During the Cherry Blossom Festival are people going around kvetching about Pearl Harbor?

NO!

People need to stop raining on this parade.

Thanksgiving Eatin'

So what are the classic side dishes for Thanksgiving?  You've got your cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, bread stuffing, squash, and broccoli are the ones that immediately come to mind.  Here are three takes on Thanksgiving side dishes to whet your appetite, from the traditional to the healthy, and the ... disturbing.

The Food Channel has an article with links to recipes for all the traditional eating, from mashed potatoes to cranberry sauce.

The New York Times will have a series of articles focusing on vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes.  Their intent is to replace the turkey with foods that emphasize the harvest aspect of Thanksgiving by being based on ingredients that are grown.  I don't disagree with this idea, and admit that some of these recipes seem delicious, but to me it's more a collection of side dishes rather than entrees.

Finally, there's Flavorwire's list of "10 Absolutely Forbidden Foods." I wouldn't recommend this as a good list of ideas.  In fact, just reading the list might be very unhealthy for you let alone actually eating any of these things

More Conclusive Evidence that Thanksgiving is Unpopular

Popular culture, as the name implies, is the culture of the popular.  In the United States is takes on a bizarre, recursive relationship with the zeitgeist. The things people like are both reflected by and defined by popular culture.  One of the powerful elements of popular culture is media, and in the case of this article, movies in particular.  What's more American than going to the movies?

Let's take a look at what the movies have to say about Thanksgiving.

First up is a Moviefone article from last year, listing 21 of the "best" Thanksgiving movies.  Let's see, they have:

1. Planes, Trains, & Automobiles
2. Pieces of April
3. Dutch
4. Son in Law
5. The Ice Storm
6. The House of Yes
7. The Myth of Fingerprints
8. Home for the Holidays
9. Funny People
10. Hannah & Her Sisters
11. Brokeback Mountain
12. Scent of a Woman
13. Miracle on 34th Street
14. Tadpole
15. Nobody's Fool
16. Thankskilling
17. She's Gotta' Have It
18. Alice's Restaurant
19. Rescue Down
20. Grindhouse
21. The Big Chill

Did you notice something about the list?  How about the fact that you probably haven't heard of about half of them.  Another quarter were ones that you likely had to think very hard to even recall that there was a scene involving Thanksgiving.  Finally the last quarter were solidly "Thanksgiving Movies."  Heck, I saw Funny People and thought it was a very underrated movie but I was surprised to see it on the list because I couldn't recall a scene that took place during Thanksgiving.  Heck, Miracle on 34th Street, despite having a sequence set during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, is widely regarded as a Christmas movie due to its focus on Santa Claus.  In fact that's how most of this list read: like somebody struggled desperately to think of any movie anywhere with a connection to Thanksgiving, no matter how tangential, to produce a list of "Thanksgiving Movies."

Now, let's compare this to Christmas movies.  In fact, how about we compare it to just one particular Christmas movie.  How many times has A Christmas Carol been adapted to the big screen?  According to this Wikipedia entry, at least 22 times. 

Google as Proof of Thanksgiving's Lack of Popularity

The public has spoken; they think Thanksgiving is the least awesome of holidays in the 4th quarter according to the all-important awesome-o-meter.  The results are only made all the more indisputable when tested through Google Trends.

Why "UpGobble!"?

The UpGobble! movement derives its name from several sources.  First, there's the expression "gobble up" which means "eat a large amount of food quickly."  This is something that is done on Thanksgiving.  The word "gobble" is also a reference to the sound that a turkey makes.  Finally, the "up" is symbolic of promoting, which is what this group does.  Hence we are promoting turkeys, the symbol of the holiday.  The logo for the movement was designed to very literally depict this sentiment.

Does Thanksgiving Need Help?

Of course, the first question one must ask when considering membership in a group focused on the promotion of Thanksgiving is whether our efforts are even needed. Just our brave brethren at Occupy Wall Street had to determine "what we want" we need to work in reverse.  We know what we want--for Thanksgiving to take a more prominent position in the minds of people during the 4th quarter of the year--so now we just need to justify our want of it.

For proof of the need to promote Thanksgiving I turn to our highest authorities, that vaunted 1% that the Occupy Wall Street-ers are so concerned about.  I mean, if businesses (a.k.a. "the wealthy") think that Thanksgiving is generally ignored then that must be the situation, shouldn't it?

Well Party & Paper--a trade magazine for the party, costuming, & wedding industry--had an article earlier this year on this very matter!  Apparently the situation was dire enough to warrant a title that read, and I quote "Don't Forget Thanksgiving."  It gets worse!  The sub header was "There is more to the fourth quarter than Halloween."  If the decorations and party supplies industrial complex is concerned about Thanksgiving's lack of revenue generation then clearly it's a major issue.

But you're probably thinking "that's not so bad, maybe people don't buy many Thanksgiving decorations because they re-use them year-after-year."  So then perhaps, if we could track the sales of something not reusable we could better evaluate the prominence of Thanksgiving.  It just so happens that information is readily available.  You've probably heard of Hallmark, right?  They're one of the major players in the greeting card industry.  Well they happen to provide their own numbers in regards to the number of cards sent by holiday.  It's some complex, detailed analysis so let me break it down graphically:

That's right, it seems that this time we're fighting for the 1%.  We're through the looking glass people; it's only going to get tougher from here!