WASHINGTON — Alas it is over. I am speaking of the Thanksgiving Day celebration, one of my favorite holidays. It is a serious celebration, as we give thanks for our many blessings. Yet it is also a jolly day, full of good food, drink and sport — perhaps touch football, more likely a televised game. The whole family comes together and, often in the company of friends, has a festive time. Moreover, there is a venerable sense of tradition to the feast that renders the whole holiday somehow reassuring.
However, now comes a time troubled by a deep sense of apprehension, especially for people of faith. I am speaking of the Christmas season. The apprehension begins with how we greet people? Last week it was customary to say, “Have a Happy Thanksgiving” or just “Happy Thanksgiving.” I must have intoned that line a hundred times, never with a premonition of giving offense or of introducing an evangelizing spirit into a brief social encounter. “Happy Thanksgiving” might be prefatory to devastating a plump bird, but only the very morbid are offended and they can always munch on a nutrition bar.
