Opinion Piece: Thanksgiving Week

For many, Thanksgiving is a time of turkey, family, and shopping. Usually, the extended weekend gives many a chance to catch up with family and browse crowded malls for discounted shopping experiences. Except for this COVID year, where everything is different. Zoom, FaceTime, and WhatsApp have all provided new modalities to interact with family members. Online shopping is at an all time high. But with so many of us straining our eyes with more technology, I believe that we should extend Thanksgiving Weekend to a full Thanksgiving Week. By giving more days to Thanksgiving, everyone can truly appreciate the meaning of giving thanks. With school beginning earlier in September and snow days gone forever (because of our transition to Zoom), there are plenty of reasons to extend Thanksgiving to a full week as an investment in emotional and physical well-being of both the students and faculty.

Thanksgiving began as a national day of giving thanks by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War on October 3, 1863 with the purpose of unity. Every president followed and it was the economical creativity of President Franklin Roosevelt who issued the proclamation that Thanksgiving be held on the 4th Thursday in November to help the economy with earlier holiday shopping. Now, we can also contribute to greater economic growth by extending Black Friday sales into Black Weekend Sales, and Cyber Monday can become Cyber Week. More days off for Thanksgiving would be a great asset to society, because people would return to work and school fully refreshed and ready to tackle the challenges of December and January.