Grateful Feasts and Feasts of Grace

I'll address fasting later.
Since "Thanksgiving" as a word is so loaded, how about a Feast of Grace/ Grateful Feast?
Held at the harvest time best suited to your locale (not Nov. in the Southern Hemisphere, for example) and oriented to being humbly grateful for bounty, health and friends/family?
Personally, I'd hold one when the first fresh foods become available, possibly summer solstice, because I get tired of fall foods, which I keep all winter.
Plus, you could hold it outside anywhere in the N. Hemisphere.
A dominator culture benefit would be a second time to motivate tzedekkah (charity) to food banks and the like. {Summers are hard on them as the kiddies who get free/reduced breakfast and lunches in school systems are NOT getting those meals, so mamas and poppas who make it the rest of the year have that one more bit of financial stress.}
I'd use local products rather than some New England menu. Nopales, chiles, locally-grown greens and beans (lucky me, I have a Colorado company that cans veggies grown here), trout for the omnis, etc. locally made breads/ homemade breads and desserts.

what it would MEAN:
that we take additional time (for those who have a harvest feast) to be grateful and share with others.
and that cannot be a bad thing to anyone.

That we are conscious of how food is raised, and the people (labeled so thoughtlessly in the US as "illegals") who toil to bring those foods to us (Blessed is (s)he who brings forth bread from the earth)

That we are conscious of how our consumer decisions affect the rest of this "bright blue ball spinning, spinning free, dizzy with possibility."

That we give thanks to the animals and plants that died so we could eat and sustain life.

That we slow down for a day and BE rather than DO.

the flip side would be a day of action as well.
we would DO something to add to the expression of grattitude.
I'd poffer a fast (24 hrs, the young and ill exempt) the day before and preferably with an in the community service performed, be it mowing the neighbor's yard, working the soup kitchen, recording books for the sight impaired or working on a cause for which you are passionate.

thoughts?

 

I love it! Esp. the idea of focusing on local produce.

And yes, we can give thanks more than once a year. Native Americans did it 6 times a year.

I think you've really got the COOL perspective down on this.

It turns thanksgiving into a Conscious activity for us, rather than just a pigout party.

I think we can also use it as an educational opportunity, instructing others (by example) on matters like diet, sourcing locally, the economic, ecological & political impacts of what we choose to eat, and of course the need to acknowledge the ultimate source of our bounty.