My Favorite Time of the Year: Thanksgiving

By Craig Ashton Jr., November 22, 2023

Thanksgiving is my favorite American holiday, as it traditionally keeps the values of gratitude and togetherness alive. I love Thanksgiving because it’s similar to the biblical festival of Sukkot, an autumn harvest festival that celebrated giving thanks. According to Jewish scholar Linda Burghardt, Sukkot is considered a model for the American Thanksgiving (Jewish Holiday Traditions, 2001). I find it compelling that the Pilgrims fashioned the first Thanksgiving after the Jewish custom of celebrating the success of the year’s crops. The Pilgrims desired to return to their spiritual roots and celebrate the harvest with a communal gathering that brought different ethnicities together. Celebrating peace and brotherhood with others is a tradition that should be preserved.

Gathering with family to share a meal is what makes Thanksgiving so special to me. It’s about family and lots of food, and with such a great feast, it’s easy to include friends and neighbors in this holiday. I fondly remember organizing a healthy, church-sponsored Thanksgiving meal for friends and other community members. People of other faiths or no faith at all were invited to come together for a vegetarian Thanksgiving. This formal meal was brimming with whole, unprocessed plant-based foods that combined to form a spread of beautiful colors, textures and flavors. The event emphasized health, gratitude, and thanksgiving, and the dinner tables were packed full of delighted guests.

At Thanksgiving—as at the feast of Sukkot—one is supposed to invite family and friends to share God’s abundance with gratitude. However, we often draw our family circles far too small. We are told that in the future, the whole world will be invited to celebrate a Thanksgiving feast. The prophet Isaiah declared that God Himself will host this banquet of delicious food for all people. Isaiah also noted that death will be no more—no more death or violence, just peace and togetherness (Isaiah 25:6). I will add that there’s a connection between our treatment of animals and our dealings with people. Generally speaking, kindness to animals is associated with the capacities for love and gratitude. So why not try including more healthy and delicious plant-based dishes this Thanksgiving?

Craig Ashton Jr.