At this point there’s a whole slew of official, Federal Heritage Months.

Some are obviously appropriate, a whole bunch is very obviously missing from the list and some are at least somewhat questionable.

You be the judge:

February is Black History Month

March is Women’s History Month

March is also Irish American Heritage Month

We can only assume that Irish women are officially celebrated in March as well.

March is also Greek American Heritage Month

May is National Asian Pacific American Month and Jewish American Heritage Month

June is Gay and Lesbian Pride Month as well as Caribbean American Heritage Month

For August the Back to School Month was created.

We always dreaded going back to school after the summer vacations, so what are we celebrating here?

September 15, to October 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month

Strange definition of a month in our opinion…

At the same time, September is also German American Heritage Month, Italian American Heritage Month and Polish American Heritage Month.
What is it about September that so many categories were lumped in there?

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month

Doesn’t that overlap a bit the National Hispanic Heritage Month, by any chance?

November is American Indian Heritage Month and Alaska Native Heritage Month
Considering that these are the original inhabitants of this continent, shouldn’t they get more than just a measly month?

And December is Universal Human Rights Month

All fine and dandy, it would seem, except for the almost unlimited number of nationalities, cultures “preferences”, genders and so forth that seem to be missing from this list.

As you might have guessed, there is considerable lobbying going on by all kinds of groups, to be included in this Federal Heritage Month extravaganza. At the same time not many slots are still available. Our preference would be to change the whole heritage month concept to a heritage week, or even a heritage day.

Just imagine a Federal Internet Blogger Heritage Day, or a Federal Incorrigible Heterosexual Day, a Federal Spouse that Doesn’t Cheat Day, a Federal Taxpayer’s Day, or even a Federal Honest Politician Who’s Not a Lawyer Day.

Don’t you think that this would be just as dignified as the present arrangement and a whole lot more fun?

We would love to hear your opinions and suggestions on this one.

Technorati Tags: Federal Heritage Months

There is no doubt that Thanksgiving is a very nice, family holiday and that it holds a special place in people’s calendars and hearts.

There’s nothing wrong with of at all… except that the pervading myth about the whole feast and its de rigueur menu, which supposedly originated with the Pilgrims in the first half of the 17^th century isn’t strictly true at all.

In addition, the Pilgrims were really a very unsavory bunch of Puritans, who had the leave England,  where they have overstayed their welcome by a long, long shot.

So, fortunately, the so-called Pilgrims had very little to do with the whole thing. As it happened, it was a creation of 19^th century Americans, particularly New Englanders, who wanted to have another national holiday. At the time, we had only two of those: Washington’s Birthday and the Fourth of July. There was also Christmas of course, which wasn’t really counted as a National Holiday.

Abraham Lincoln's presidential order establishing the Thanksgiving Holiday

From the beginning Thanksgiving was a holiday very directly related to food. Something along the lines of a harvest feast, which by that time was celebrated in practically every country of the world in some form.

What really and truly started the whole thing was Sarah Josepha Hale, probably the first female American novelist of note, who has written books, such as Northwood: A Tale of New England and Mary had a Little Lamb. Ms. Hale has written a whole chapter in which she described Thanksgiving in minute detail, with the turkey and the dressing and the gravy and all the other things and ingredients that we now think of as an integral part of the holiday.

Her novel turned out to be extremely popular and Sarah Josepha Hale became the editor a popular woman’s magazine, creating in the process a lot of the mid-19^th century fashion trends, one of which was, as you might have guessed, the Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving officially became a National Holiday in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln after some important Union victories during the Civil War issued a presidential order, making it official.

We hope that these tidbits of historical information do not disappoint those who believe in the traditional Pilgrim/Indian-related lore. It still remains a very nice holiday. Probably even nicer, without the nasty Pilgrim/Puritan connotations.

If only the artificially-fattened turkeys tasted better…and if the NFL football games were not a part of it all…

We get the feeling that if Sarah Josepha Hale was faced with both of the above, she would have given up on Thanksgiving altogether.

In any case, a Very Happy Thanksgiving to all! Just don’t overeat, please.

Technorati Tags: football, Indians, nfl, Origins, Pilgrims, puritans, Real, Sarah Josepha Hale, Thanksgiving, Turkey