Our National Day - Andrew

Our National Day - Andrew Sullivan has a point - perhaps more than Fourth of July, Thanksgiving is the real American national holiday. I've read this article before - it's six years old, from the Sunday Times of London - but it's as wonderfully pertinent as any.

Here's my favorite of many favorite parts:

At the end of November each year this restless, contradictory and simple country finds a way to celebrate itself. The British, as befits a people at ease with themselves, do not have a national day. When the French do, their insecurity shows. Even America, on the fourth of July, displays a slightly neurotic excess of patriotism. But on Thanksgiving, the Americans resolve the nationalist dilemma. They don't celebrate themselves, they celebrate their good fortune. And every November, as I reflect on a country that can make even an opinionated Englishman feel at home, I know exactly how they feel.

Happy Thanksgiving, America, wherever you are.

Posted by Mitch at November 28, 2002 03:58 PM