Friendsgiving

I don't recall when this concept of friendsgiving was first dreamed up, but people have been implementing the idea for a long time; for instance inviting a bereaved friend to their feast, or an immigrant family.  On one hand, for many, Thanksgiving is all about gathering the family together; including difficult and reclusive members, and excluding non-family, to avoid any embarrass-ment taking place in the view of outsiders!

But families were large, in the old days, and once they started getting smaller, it was reasonable that a few little families would join together, so that it would be a jollier occasion.

Friendsgiving sometimes underscores the inclusion of non-family, but there is also the thought that certain family members are less welcome than certain non-family members, which reminds us that some people are permanently unpleasant, which can be blamed on the unpleasant ones, or everybody else!

There is also the interesting problem that while to some, the feast focuses on certain interesting types of food, to others it is all about vast quantities.  That's unfortunate, because it is widely recognized that overeating is unhealthy, and often leads, indirectly, to having to discard a lot of uneaten food, which is always a sad thing, not least from the environmental point of view.

Some people cling to the fact that socializing is not compulsory.  They can hardly wait until they can celebrate feasts with some family members too far away to invite.  A lot of fiction uses this device for the drama that brings out these sorts of tensions.  In contrast, some fiction uses large family gatherings to depict how they can actually heal some interpersonal wounds, to introduce new companions, and new family members. 

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