See Andrew Eddy’s ‘Why Do Reindeers Fly?’ So many unanswerable questions as Americans watch this miserable year come to a close. Like our Congressmen we carve out of this year’s calendar one extra holiday day, because we need some peace. But hope springs eternal: perhaps this slightly longer hiatus from the smog of badness will clear people’s heads. Reindeers fly because we believe they do, or want to believe they do, or pretend that they do, and whether they do or not is as innocent as an unremembered smile and at least until now one of the most precious pieces of my childhood. The horror of my world today is that Fox News has kidnapped that innocent childhood memory and treats life and death as simply as the flight of reindeers, and the terror is that so many believe them.

Today begins the long Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. (Canada celebrates it earlier.) Technically on Thursday, many households begin preparations today as relatives from distant places begin their traveling to the Thanksgiving home. For many Americans this has become a bigger holiday than Christmas and other end-of-the-year celebrations, which are considered more religious than familial.

In both Canada and the U.S. the holiday is characterized by copious amounts of food featuring seasonal recipes and lots of sweets. The traditional meat served at the feast is turkey.

The holiday originates with the first permanent settlers to the New World, people who called themselves “pilgrims” who were fleeing England’s restrictive laws on religion. They arrived the northeast coast of America between 1620 and 1621.

They faired poorly in the beginning until two local native Americans, Wampanoags of the Algonkian-speaking clans, both of whom spoke English (because one of them had previously traveled to England in 1605) befriended the settlers. The “Indians” taught the pilgrims how to farm and build homesteads, and the summer planting season was so successful that the pilgrims invited the Indians to a “Thanksgiving” harvest dinner in November, 1621.

Click here for much more information about the history and meaning of Thanksgiving by a native American school teacher, who dispels not only the myths about the “primitiveness” of native Americans, but also about the pilgrims’ history and beliefs.

Today is the Columbus Day federal holiday in America.

“Columbus Day” puzzles many African readers of this blog. After all, Columbus didn’t land in America but in the West Indies. So it seems a fickle holiday in a country that’s known not to have many.

Many Americans are as puzzled as Africans and recently a movement among larger American cities is growing that would change “Columbus Day” to “Indigenuous Peoples Day.”

The idea began in Berkeley, California, where it has been the law since 1992. But there it sat languishing until just a few years ago when Sacramento, then Minneapolis and then the largest city so far, Seattle, also adopted the new orientation.

Today, regardless of what they day is called depending upon where an American lives, almost all government services are suspended, schools are closed, all banks in all states must be closed, and there’s no mail delivery. The holiday was proclaimed in 1937 on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus into the Americas.

Many large cities, including New York, have huge parades. Over the years the celebration has taken on an ethnic tone, celebrating Italian heritage.

Many of us take short road trips to country house BnB’s and tiny towns to enjoy the fall colors, because the holiday traditionally marks the end of summer, and the start of dreary fall with the certain coming of a frigid winter.

Today starts the extended “Labor Day” weekend holiday in the United States, Thursday – Monday. America’s May Day is officially celebrated Monday.

Labor Day marks the end of summer when friends and family gather for the last summer barbecue. It vies with Christmas and New Years to be the least worked days in the U.S.

Vacations end, schools reopen, the fall sports season begins (especially American football), the culture season with operas and symphonies begin in the great cities, and everyone prepares to return to serious, long work weeks.

If ever a holiday marked the turning of a season, it’s Labor Day. Read more ›

Today is one of America’s most important holidays of the year, Independence Day. It comes on an odd day-of-the-week, because most Americans will be docked a day’s pay if they also took off Monday. So it’s likely that long distance celebrations with relatives — a trademark of the 4th of July — might occur less this year.

America’s Independence Day holiday has lost much of its context over the last 220 years. Unlike many African countries, for example, there is no living memory of independence, just what the books tell us.

Yet it remains one of the most universally celebrated holidays on the calendar. It’s summer in America, perfect for parades, games and … baseball, the national sport! And from my earliest memories as a a child what I continue to associate the holiday with most are fireworks!

Today is one of the most important holidays for political America, the Martin Luther King federal holiday. It’s impossible to understate its importance this year.

The current xenophobic administration is poised to make illegal 800,000 young people Friday at midnight. Starting in the wee hours Saturday morning, the embodiment of “I Have a Dream,” King’s famous speech, today America’s “Dreamers” face being deported to places they have never seen.

Read more ›

See Andrew Eddy’s ‘Why Do Reindeers Fly?’

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. (Canada celebrates it earlier.) Thanksgiving is one of Canada and the U.S.’ major holiday celebrations, characterized by copious amounts of food featuring seasonal recipes and lots of sweets. The traditional meat served at the feast is turkey.

The two-day holiday originates with the first permanent settlers to the New World, people who called themselves pilgrims fleeing England’s restrictive laws on religion and who arrived the northeast coast of America in between 1620 and 1621.

They faired poorly in the beginning until two local native Americans, Wampanoags of the Algonkian-speaking clans, both of whom spoke English (because one of them had previously traveled to England in 1605) befriended the settlers. The “Indians” taught the pilgrims how to farm and build homesteads, and the summer planting season was so successful that the pilgrims invited the Indians to a “Thanksgiving” harvest dinner in November, 1621.

Click here for much more information about the history and meaning of Thanksgiving by a native American school teacher, who dispels not only the myths about the “primitiveness” of native Americans, but also about the pilgrims’ history and beliefs.

Today is controversial: a very revered American holiday that many of us are reluctant to celebrate because we are so ashamed of America’s wars. Yet we can’t ignore the life stories of those who are conflated with them.

During my life time, which began just after World War II, America has fought many wars and not a single one was justified. I hoped Obama would end some of them, but instead he started new ones. Today, it’s terrifying. A conservative government will bring on more war, and our Commander-in-Chief has implied he will use nukes.

Read more ›

Today starts the “Labor Day” weekend holiday in the United States. America’s May Day is officially celebrated Monday.

Labor Day marks the end of summer when friends and family gather for the last summer barbecue. It vies with Christmas and New Years Day to be the least worked day in the U.S.

Vacations end, schools reopen, the fall sports season begins (especially American football), the culture season with operas and symphonies begin in the great cities, and everyone prepares to return to serious, long work weeks.

If ever a holiday marked the turning of a season, it’s Labor Day. Read more ›

Today begins one of America’s most important holidays of the year, Independence Day! Technically July 4th, Monday, most Americans have extended the weekend to begin today. The 4-day holiday will see more Americans “on the road,” driving pretty long distances to celebrate with relatives and friends or just taking a short vacation than ever before, mostly because of very low petrol prices.

America’s Independence Day holiday has lost much of its context over the last 220 years. Unlike many African countries, for example, there is no living memory of independence, just what the books tell us.

Yet it remains one of the most universally celebrated holidays on the calendar. It’s summer in America, perfect for parades, games and … baseball, the national sport! And from my earliest memories as a a child what I continue to associate the holiday with most are fireworks!

Today is one of the most important benchmarks in the American calendar, the Martin Luther King federal holiday.

Yet in America in recent years King’s dreams have retreated into the fog of self-righteousness. His detractors, America’s Right, has rolled back many of the voting freedoms he had fought for a half century ago, assisted by a conservative if vindictive Supreme Court.

King’s supporters were certainly re-energized this past year by a number of horrible police actions against innocent blacks. Yet so far in all but one case, the police who were implicated in the shootings have been exonerated, either discharged by juries or never prosecuted.

Dr. King is ascribed in history — like Ghandi – as a champion of non-violence. But what I most remember of King’s turbulent last days was unbelievable violence. My most vivid memory is as a very young journalist penned under a burning El Stop in downtown Chicago while the city raged in reaction to King’s assassination.

I remember gun fire was a regular sound in my low-rent apartment in Washington, D.C. during the summer of 1968. Or the unending sirens and tear gas around my apartment in Berkeley that fall.

Those days ended in victory for my side. The Vietnam War came to an end. Civil Rights and Voting Rights leaped forward. There is much violence in America, today, but it seems to occur without a cause.

Gun violence in America is horrific, today. The number of guns bought by Americans is at an unbelievable number today: there are now more guns than people.

This is not what Dr. King had in mind. So today we celebrate his 87th birthday, wishing sorely that he were still here to explain.

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. (Canada celebrates it earlier.) Thanksgiving is one of Canada and the U.S.’ major holiday celebrations, characterized by copious amounts of food featuring seasonal recipes and lots of sweets. The traditional meat served at the feast is turkey.

The two-day holiday originates with the first permanent settlers to the New World, people who called themselves pilgrims fleeing England’s restrictive laws on religion and who arrived the northeast coast of America in between 1620 and 1621.

They faired poorly in the beginning until two local native Americans, Wampanoags of the Algonkian-speaking clans, both of whom spoke English (because one of them had previously traveled to England in 1605) befriended the settlers. The “Indians” taught the pilgrims how to farm and build homesteads, and the summer planting season was so successful that the pilgrims invited the Indians to a “Thanksgiving” harvest dinner in November, 1621.

Click here for much more information about the history and meaning of Thanksgiving by a native American school teacher, who dispels not only the myths about the “primitiveness” of native Americans, but also about the pilgrims’ history and beliefs.