Observing the holiday

All of our major secular holidays seem to involve giving thanks in one way or another: for our founding generation, for the service of veterans, for those sacrificed in war, for leaders, both political and moral. The same is true for religious holidays, when Christians give thanks for the life of Jesus, or Passover, when Jews are grateful for the sparing and liberation of the tribes of Israel. Even the so-called minor holidays: when we give thanks in February for our sweetie-pies, or for moms in May and dads in June, or when we give thanks in April for the planet that sustains us. We may not be as grateful as if we had the day off, but are grateful, nonetheless.


Thanksgiving is a different kind of holiday in this sense: It has no specific honoree. It celebrates a quality of mind, gratitude, without respect to subject. It may be unique among national holidays everywhere for that reason. It did not begin that way. The first national day of Thanksgiving was an expression of gratitude for the passing of the ruinous turmoil of the Civil War. But as that trauma passed from the memories of the living, the holiday remained, leaving each succeeding generation to identify its own reasons for giving thanks.

The success of Thanksgiving suggests that we might consider national celebrations of other virtues: compassion, modesty, moderation, generosity, diligence, mercy, or selflessness, to give a few examples. A national day of diligence, alas, would not be one you could take off from work.