FRIENDSGIVING: WHEN BLOOD IS NO LONGER THICKER THAN WATER
November, 2019
As the leaves change their colors and the winter chill sets in, students prepare for the impending holiday season with their families. But, as many teens and adults alike move towards celebrating traditions like Friendsgiving, the definition of whom people consider “family” to be is changing.
Though a celebration that first gained popular and social recognition through the sitcom “Friends” during the ‘90s, Friendsgiving is now celebrated in all reaches of the United States by people of all backgrounds.
For many, Friendsgiving is a tradition celebrated in addition to the typical Thanksgiving celebration they partake in with their families. Urban Dictionary defines it as “The celebration of Thanksgiving dinner with your friends. This usually occurs on the Wednesday before or the Friday after Thanksgiving Day, since Thanksgiving is usually reserved for family gatherings”.
Senior Courtney Hart said Friendsgiving gives her an opportunity to spend time with friends and celebrate the value of those friendships. “It’s a little different with your friends because there are different games and food but the main point is still quality time with the people you love,” she said.
But for those who live far from relatives, those who have had distressing family experiences or those who have no relatives to visit at all, celebrating Friendsgiving may be the only way to spend the holidays with the people they love.
The changes society has undergone both socially and in the workplace require a change in how the holidays are celebrated, said English Teacher Lynne Lundberg.
“For a generation that struggles to make ends meet, let alone have vacation days that line up with the holiday seasons, it is unrealistic for them to be able to travel home for these occasions,” she said. “They have to learn to take advantage of the time they do have off and make their own new family with the people present in their lives, who often aren’t people they are actually related to”.
Whether Friendsgiving is celebrated in addition to usual traditions or celebrated in place of a Thanksgiving with relatives, the emergence of such friend-based “holidays” points to a greater social redefinition of family.
The holiday season is about being with and appreciating loved ones and the role they play in one’s life. While relatives are certainly a part of this demographic, as more and more people make independent decisions about who they love and value, the term family can no longer solely apply to blood relatives.
With these modern interpretations of family and love, the age-old saying,“blood is thicker than water” is simply outdated.
Reflection
After starting preparations for my own Friendsgiving, it occurred to me that there was an interesting culture rising up around the concept of holidays and whom they are spent with. This piqued my interest and led me to write about how this societal shift came to be. Throughout the research process, I had the opportunity to ask people of several generations about their views on spending the holidays with friends and why it has become a popular trend. Though I had already written a number of articles that considered intergenerational views, this was the first I found to be reliant on the views of these different generations. Uncovering how different generations felt about the trend allowed for the identification of how it came to be and made it possible for the article to address the greater subject of friends becoming family. It wasn’t until I heard an adult’s perspective on Friendsgiving that I realized it isn't just the younger generations who are leaning towards treating friends as family.
I chose to include this article in my portfolio as I find it to be my best example of an analysis of a greater concept as opposed to an article that is purely informative in nature. The process of acquiring and interpreting a number of viewpoints was a challenge with the article, but a challenge that I feel made this one of my best pieces of writing.