Today, in America, it is Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is a national holiday. The day is set aside for a grateful nation to stop and consider its blessings and address thanks to a Providential God. Those not theistically inclined are left to contemplate the luck of living in a land of plenty.
No mail is delivered. The banks close. The government comes to a halt, itself cause for thanks.
Canada also celebrates this holiday, though on the second Monday in October. Its French-Canadian name is l'Action de Grāce.
France, a nation of leisure holidays, has no national holiday for the purpose of offering thanks.
Cela n'existe tout simplement pas.
Perhaps thanks comes hard to the French. Perhaps they do not feel themselves blessed by Providence or godless happenstance. Then again it may never have crossed their minds to be thankful. What others see as blessings, the French consider their due.
"Thanksgiving", like countless celebrations around the world, finds its origins in various Harvest rituals which were part of religious tradition. "Thanks-giving" comes from a vague reference to the Pilgrims allegedly thanking their Indian hosts (who had no idea what was coming to them but that's another matter).
Our "theistically inclined" friend fails to mention that, even though Thanksgiving is a unique American tradition (and therefore not celebrated in France - or Sweden for that matter), the nearest French equivalent would be "le Réveillon" where ungrateful French pagan families gather to eat a dead turkey and for desert, the traditional būche de Nōel (actually a pagan reference), soaked with decadent Champagne, before celebrating Christmas while impurely kissing each other on both cheeks. Many even go to church on that same evening, would you believe it?
We are always happy to be informed on French pagan customs by those in the know.
DGB
