Mental Health Affairs

Sports in Autumn have an altered look. Baseball is about to start the playoffs in the quest for the World Series, while football has played several games in the journey for a Super Bowl appearance. Meanwhile, hockey and basketball enjoy exciting new season games, not against each other. Volleyball is no longer outside at the beach, and many indoor pools converted to ice hockey rinks or roller skating spots—no skating for me. I can’t afford to get hurt on the ice rink or plow myself into the side wall because I don’t know how to stop. 

Leaves change and take on the colors of the rainbow—red ones to the left, orange ones to the right. I can see yellow and some non-altered green ones outside my home. Not quite ROYGBIV, but close. In the sky, the rainbow is apparent with clear blue, and clouds mix with indigo and violet. Autumn is more than a visual holiday despite the orange, yellow and brown colors filling our windows, streets, and food options. Oh, those smells! Yellow bananas, orange pumpkins, brown stews, are we hungry and prepared to use our senses to feast. On September 22, the autumnal equinox occurs. 

Fall is here. On the last day of October in the USA, Halloween comes. Although celebrated in many countries, Halloween is not a holiday. Labeled a CELEBRATION by the United States Government, this day continues to be another fall enigma. In the USA, the Thanksgiving holiday occurs on the fourth Thursday of November. This day has been shifted a few times, beginning on November 26, 1789, and moved by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to the last Thursday in November. By 1870, Congress said it was the discretion of the President, and most of them kept it to last Thursday. It was proposed to Congress on January 3, 1941, that it be settled on the fourth (last) Thursday of November. October 6, it was agreed upon and passed Congress and was signed into law by FDR on November 26 and began in 1942.

Many countries celebrate Thanksgiving. People in the USA celebrate with a feast to signify the harvest. This celebration is supposedly to rejoice for the plentifulness of the past year. Since harvesting occurs at different times in different parts of the world, this holiday has no fixed date across the globe. Back to our senses. Fall has some of the best smells of the year. Turkey with cornbread stuffed, sweet yams, glazed apples, and all those variety baked fruit pies that attack our noses while welcoming the season in grand style. 

Other communities do not acknowledge Thanksgiving. Active protest against Thanksgiving continues to foment. Known as the National Day of Mourning, Indigenous people and their allies engage in memorial activities. In doing so, the death of a renowned individual is remembered, whether a manufactured event or a natural disaster. A common occurrence is to fly a national or military flag of that country at half-mast. These days or days generally do not coincide with Thanksgiving. 

During Thanksgiving, the sights and smells of seasonal foods are abundant. Our ears are in for an onslaught of sounds. Let us remember football. Most years, parades and homecoming events go through streets, with marching bands making lots of music everywhere. Before Covid19, there were crowds of children prancing on the avenues collecting candies, receiving money, and blowing instruments to get attention from the spectators. 

Almost every year since 1924, The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade continued without any interruptions. Macy’s canceled the Thanksgiving day parade from 1942 to 1944. World War II was raging, and the national focus and sentiment were all about winning the war, not celebrating American opulence. Due to concerns about COVID in 2020, no individuals were allowed anywhere along the parade route. Sometimes, we will get passed COVID-19 and fully engage in Halloween and all the outside activities we have missed. It is slowly returning, and hopefully, it will return with all its glamor and pageantry plus the pomp and circumstance. Maybe it will happen this year. At least, we can hope—happy Autumn to all.

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