Yes, Thanksgiving is a time for adult children to pack up and pay a visit to parents, where ever their homes may be.
Today’s Washington Post, it’s the last Sunday before Thanksgiving 2014, features an interesting article, Thanksgiving: A Rare Holiday That’s Isn’t All About Kids. The short piece, appearing in the Post’s Outlook section, points out that although Thanksgiving celebrations include lots of multigenerational activities, the holiday itself has not become as kid-centered or commercial as other holidays such as Christmas and Easter.
According to author Jack Santino, a folklorist at Bowling Green State University, the holiday is geared toward important concepts like giving and thanks, but it also recognizes our need to go home — and sometimes considerable distances — to reconnect with parents and other relatives. Thanksgiving Day celebrations emphasize traditions of families, extended families, and country. Santino provides some historical background for the holiday, going back to Sarah Josepha Hale, a well-known editor of a women’s magazine, the American Ladies Magazine, who enthusiastically promoted a national day of thanksgiving. The most interesting part of the article for me is Santino’s description of how Thanksgiving has resisted commercialism — how we rarely see candy turkeys or really any symbolic turkeys at all.
As Our Parents Age So Do We 