Why Doesn't Thanksgiving Have A Mythos

[Winter]

When compared to it's sister Holidays Thanksgiving is kind of a blank Holiday. I mean Halloween is the night of witches, ghouls, goblins and ghosts, when the dead walk among us for one night and seek to remind the living that we will join them sooner or later. By contrast Christmas is the time of joy and mirlces, when old Saint Nick goes from house to house to deliver presents to all the children and when Christ himself was born.

By contrast Thanksgiving is, the one with the bird.

I mean the most notable thing about this Holiday other then the fancy dinner we have it's most well known for a parade that features a bunch of characters from TV and Film. There is no real mythology to this one Holiday. No central character, no real lore and not any sort of stories. Hell keep in mind that Thanksgiving techially got started because one women wrote to everyone across America saying she wanted a American Holiday until everyone finally got annoyed and just declared the last Thursday or November a Holiday. Yes Thanksgiving was the result of someone annoying everyone until she got what she wanted if there was ever any doubt that this is an American Holiday.

So Thanksgiving is a relativity young Holiday, around 400 years while Halloween and Christmas are both around 2000 years old. However over a 100 years is still over 100 years so why hasn't anyone really tried to giving some lore to this Holiday?

I think that Thanksgiving is long over due to its own mythos with its own unique character and story. Maybe something that fits its role as the "Middle Child" of Halloween and Christmas. Something that is a bit more lighhearted then Halloween but is a little more scary then Christmas. Not sure but what I do know is the kind of design I would want for the character of this lore. It's a silly one but I would like a character that looks like this.



I know it's silly but no more so then a man in a red outfit or a skeleton in a suit, or three witches with bizarre hairstyles or a guy in a jump suit with a William Shatner mask that was painted white and given a black hair die.

And yeah I would like this character to be a girl. If you look at the most notable Holiday Icons you'll notice it's mostly a guys which is fine but it would be nice to have a girl among them. And given this is me we're talking about here yes I would also want her to have a wife. You all know me this shouldn't come as a surprise to you.

Back to the point, I just really want more to be done with this Holiday that has notably very little going on because, it's such a big part of my life. This was the Holiday when we would go to visit our relatives and my Nana (who sadly past away this year) and after visiting them we would go to Walt Disney World around my birthday. I remember being amazed at the changing of the colors around this time and I've always loved it when it got cold.

So I have a soft spot for this one Holiday and want to see it get more love and see it have it's own mythos. I mean the most notable film about this Holiday is all about one asshole trying to get home and learning about the value of friendship. It's a great film you could easily swap it out for Christmas and nothing would change.

I want to see someone look at this Holiday and go "You know what? Let's do something with this Holiday."

[Thebestoftherest]

Gives it one hundred year.

[hammerofglass]

So we're just ignoring that whitewashed story about the Mayflower Pilgrims that used to be the main theme now?

I mean it's so embarrassing to modern sensibilities that Addams Family was directly mocking it thirty years ago but still, that at least used to be the mythos.

[ProfessorDetective]

So we're just ignoring that whitewashed story about the Mayflower Pilgrims that used to be the main theme now?

I mean it's so embarrassing to modern sensibilities that Addams Family was directly mocking it thirty years ago but still, that at least used to be the mythos.

A decent primer on that propagandistic mythology (emphasis on "myth").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpILvRR9eqU

[Winter]

So we're just ignoring that whitewashed story about the Mayflower Pilgrims that used to be the main theme now?

I mean it's so embarrassing to modern sensibilities that Addams Family was directly mocking it thirty years ago but still, that at least used to be the mythos.

Oh yeah Addams Family Values is also a Thanksgiving film. Actually that's the reason I don't think of that as the mythos because I could never take it seriously after watching AFV. Also, and this is going to sound weird, it's a little to dated. With things like Santa Claus you can put him in any point in history and it would still work, it's just some guy in a red suit breaking and entering houses to drop off toys to kids his likes and giving coal to ones he doesn't. And for the really annoying ones he unleashes his hell beast... Yeah Christmas can be a lot darker then most people realize.

With Halloween the idea is that the ghosts rise from the grave and join the living for one night which is also timeless.

I would rather have a narrative that could work anywhere at any time.

[hammerofglass]

So we're just ignoring that whitewashed story about the Mayflower Pilgrims that used to be the main theme now?

I mean it's so embarrassing to modern sensibilities that Addams Family was directly mocking it thirty years ago but still, that at least used to be the mythos.

A decent primer on that propagandistic mythology (emphasis on "myth").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpILvRR9eqU

There was a Peanuts special too. Not just the Peanuts Thanksgiving one but its own thing. I first saw this in school, 92-ish.

https://vimeo.com/478312314

[ProfessorDetective]

My first idea is heavily leaning into the "harvest festival" angle. Your Saint Nick/Jack o' Lantern equivalent could be a fertility goddess, bringing us nature's bounty to sure up our supplies for the long winter ahead. The traditional feast is in her honor, thanking her for the help. Gives it a bit of neo-pagan styling, to match Samhain and Yuel's pre-Christian roots.

I'm imagining a witch, but a proper one. Not the "spooky" Oz-rejects we have for Halloween. More Mother than Crone. Maybe "druid" would be the better term? I ain't sure. My knowledge here is very... Pop Cultural...

[hammerofglass]

My first idea is heavily leaning into the "harvest festival" angle. Your Saint Nick/Jack o' Lantern equivalent could be a fertility goddess, bringing us nature's bounty to sure up our supplies for the long winter ahead. The traditional feast is in her honor, thanking her for the help. Gives it a bit of neo-pagan styling, to match Samhain and Yuel's pre-Christian roots.

I'm imagining a witch, but a proper one. Not the "spooky" Oz-rejects we have for Halloween. More Mother than Crone. Maybe "druid" would be the better term? I ain't sure. My knowledge here is very... Pop Cultural...

Kind of redundant when all the neopagan witches and druids just celebrated Samhain three weeks ago.

[hammerofglass]

We could just call Wednesday and Enid the new holiday icons. Canonically killed the racist Puritan they'd be replacing, even.

[ProfessorDetective]

My first idea is heavily leaning into the "harvest festival" angle. Your Saint Nick/Jack o' Lantern equivalent could be a fertility goddess, bringing us nature's bounty to sure up our supplies for the long winter ahead. The traditional feast is in her honor, thanking her for the help. Gives it a bit of neo-pagan styling, to match Samhain and Yuel's pre-Christian roots.

I'm imagining a witch, but a proper one. Not the "spooky" Oz-rejects we have for Halloween. More Mother than Crone. Maybe "druid" would be the better term? I ain't sure. My knowledge here is very... Pop Cultural...

Kind of redundant when all the neopagan witches and druids just celebrated Samhain three weeks ago.

Shame we can't shift the dates around. Move Thanksgiving/Harvest Day/whatever to November 30 and blend Christmas/Yuel into New Year's. Mid-Autum, End-of-Autum/Start-of-Winter, Mid-Winter. Gives everything an extra week-ish to breath.