The holiday and the year's accounting

The American holiday arrived at the end of November with the rituals that the season has fixed, and the rituals carried the year’s particular content. The tables were set with the dishes that the traditions define, the meal was shared with the particular mixture of the abundance and the effort that the year has produced, and the year’s events were weighed in the conversations that the holiday hosts; the holiday is the year’s accounting, and the accounting’s form is the one that the traditions have always provided. The day was kept with the regularity that the calendar commands, and the regularity is the holiday’s reassurance.

The table’s abundance is the part of the holiday that the rituals centre on, and the abundance’s meaning is the one that the year has made particular. The meal that the families shared was prepared against the prices that the year has raised, the costs that the trade conflicts and the climate have imposed, and the preparation was the demonstration of the households’ adjustments; the abundance was kept, and the keeping was the day’s achievement. The table was the year’s ledger, and the ledger’s balance was the holiday’s quiet arithmetic.

The year’s conversations, held around the tables, were the holiday’s real content, and the content’s course was the one that the year has produced. The trade conflicts were discussed with the particular mixture of the argument and the resignation that the year has taught, the wars were weighed with the distance that the coverage provides, and the prices were compared with the particular attention that the households’ budgets have made necessary; the conversations were the year’s accounting, and the accounting’s form was the family’s own. The year was discussed, and the discussing was the tradition that the holiday has always hosted.

The holiday’s rituals, beyond the table, were performed with the regularity that the season commands. The parades were held in the cities that stage them, the games were played and watched with the particular attention that the day’s schedule provides, and the charities conducted the drives that the season organizes; the rituals are the holiday’s public form, and the form’s persistence is the day’s demonstration of the country’s own continuity. The rituals were kept, and the keeping was the holiday’s public content.

The year’s accounting, as the holiday closed, was the accounting that the traditions have always provided: the abundance weighed against the effort, the year’s events discussed around the tables, and the gratitude performed with the particular combination that the season reserves. The holiday arrived with the rituals that the season has fixed, and the rituals carried the year’s particular content; the tables were set, the meals were shared, and the year was weighed in the conversations that the holiday hosts, which is the accounting that the season has always conducted, and the accounting’s form is the one that the traditions will keep for the years to come.