Quote Originally Posted by Helenej View Post
It’s an amazing holiday with really old roots and a romantic story at the heart of it.
Спасибо за праздничные приветы! Right now I'm at my sister's house, helping to cook Thanksgiving dinner. For some reason, my 5-year-old nephew insisted on narrating the story of the Easter Passion (using деревянные куклы, "little wooden dolls"), even though it's the wrong time of year. And the kid is disturbingly eager to be the Roman soldier who kills Jesus with the spear ("Mommy, is it time to stab him yet??")... it reminds me of a scene from A Clockwork Orange.

Anyway, I just wanted to add to Helenej's comments that even though we have a lot of stupid holidays in the U.S., Thanksgiving is one of our best "inventions." And another good thing about Thanksgiving is its "non-sectarian" nature that's not connected with any specific religion -- reflecting the long American tradition of so-called Ceremonial Deism. In my family we've got Catholics, Protestants, atheists, and a few Muslims, but everyone enjoys Thanksgiving, without feeling that they're being unfaithful to their own beliefs.