Fall has begun and the Thanksgiving holiday is fast approaching. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, with Christmas being next. For the Saint Augustine’s University community, the turkey holiday starts on Wednesday, Nov. 22, at noon. Until classes resume at 8 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 27, hopefully, students, faculty, and staff will have a very enjoyable break.
I anticipate that I will have a wonderful Thanksgiving myself. Thanksgiving, historically, is a day to give thanks for the blessing of the harvest of the preceding year. However food, family, and fun is at the heart of the celebration. For many, major holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter are when they have the opportunity to spend time with their family. For students at SAU, it is a time to go home and spend the holidays eating a family dinner and relaxing. Some students who live further and may be unable to return home for the holidays might visit with a fellow student for Thanksgiving.
No matter what your plans are, I hope everyone’s Thanksgiving is something to remember and a time to be thankful. For myself, I was born in November so this holiday is very near and dear to me. I absolutely despise it when local retail stores don’t bother to put out Thanksgiving decorations. I enjoy my shopping trips in Dollar Tree purchasing festive leaves, pumpkins, and turkey décor for the kitchen.
It is exciting when my birthday falls exactly on Thanksgiving Day, however, Thanksgiving rarely falls on Nov. 28. My brother is a “Turkey baby”; his birthday is Nov. 25. His birthday seems to fall on Thanksgiving more often than mine, but no one can tell me that Thanksgiving is not my holiday.
According to an article on theholidayspot.com entitled, “Thanksgiving Day Dates,” Thanksgiving will fall on my birthday again in the year 2019.
I don’t know how many “Turkey Babies” are at SAU, however, I do know many students who are already excited about the holiday, like Jessica Quiller, a freshman business major from Raleigh. “I am ready for Thanksgiving because my mom cook’s a lot of food,” she said. “My favorite things to eat are candied yams, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, fatback, cornbread, ham, turkey, and potato salad.”
I also enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, however, I do not really eat turkey. Actually, turkey is my least favorite Thanksgiving food along with potato salad, and cranberry sauce. On the other hand, I do love macaroni and cheese, cranberry juice, ham, candy yams, sweet potato pie, chicken, and Hawaiian rolls. I could have Thanksgiving dinner with baked macaroni and cheese and be quite happy with that one dish alone.
I m not much into the day after Thanksgiving shopping ritual known as Black Friday – after going to one or two stores, my Thanksgiving holiday is complete. Sometimes I purchase a few frugal finds, and at times I just routinely take a look in the stores as a sort of tradition.
But Thanksgiving weekend shopping is growing in popularity, according to an article in www.homeworldbusiness.com entitled, “NPD: Thanksgiving Weekend Gains in Holiday Shopping Prominence. The article, published Oct. 30, 2017. and written by Mike Duff, gives the outlook for the Black Friday shopping season for this year: “In 2017, about 30% of consumers plan to start their holiday shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend compared to the 12% to 16% before 2014. Consumer plans to shop online for the holidays have climbed steadily in recent years and, in the 2017 holiday period, two-thirds of consumers plan to do at least some of their holiday shopping online.”
Marshal Cohen, NPD chief industry analyst, added, “The boost we will see during the peak Thanksgiving week shopping period of the 2017 holiday season will come from online sales. Online will continue to grow,”.
I am not sure if I will participate in Black Friday shopping yet however, I do have plans to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I also look forward to getting some extra sleep and having a very relaxing break.
Before we know it, Christmas and New Year’s will be here and it will be time to shop for new decorations and look forward to more great food.
– By Jazmin Powell
