Yesterday, I did a comparison between Halloween and Christmas, and it covered a lot of details on what they have in common and what is different. Today and tomorrow, let’s throw in a third holiday, where today is about Thanksgiving and tomorrow is about Easter.
Because they’re all celebrated much later in the year, they got plenty in common. However, without going into much detail, I’m only going to list six things about each section. Once again, there won’t be any negatives (like Christmas isn’t a fall holiday), and there’s going to be implied meanings. For example, if there are comparisons between January, June, and July, and I say that “June and July are both summer months”, then it also means that January is not a summer month. I won’t even list “January is a winter month”.
Common Attributes:
So let’s start with the similarities between two or more holidays. Even in areas where they do it differently, there are similarities among all three holidays.
What they all have in common:
Let’s start with what all three have in common, since they are the biggest holidays of their months.
- Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are all single-day holidays.
- All three holidays occur much later in the month, and are among the last three months of the year.
- All three holidays have one consecutive holiday. Halloween comes before All Saint’s Day, Thanksgiving comes before Black Friday, and Christmas comes after Christmas Eve.
- All three holidays have their own holiday specials on TV.
- All three holidays have been commercialized.
- In years March 1st is on a Saturday, Monday, or Wednesday, all three days are on odd-numbered days of their months.
- Amazingly, between 2020 and 2027, Thanksgiving is on an even-numbered day when the year is an even number. But if the year is an odd number, Thanksgiving is an odd number. This eight-year phase happens once every 28 years, with the past “first years” being 1992, 1964, 1936, and 1908.
Halloween and Thanksgiving:
Being from the same season, you can point out many similarities between both holidays.
- Both are fall holidays, or what I call “fallidays”.
- Both involve pumpkins and apples.
- In years where March 1st is on a Sunday, both Halloween and Thanksgiving are 13 days away from the nearest Friday the 13th. Halloween comes before, Thanksgiving comes after.
- In Canada, both holidays occur in October.
- In the United States, both holidays are within the first semester of the academic year.
- Also in the United States, both holidays precede another holiday in November.
Thanksgiving and Christmas:
Despite Halloween coming from the fall, Thanksgiving is more akin to Christmas than Halloween. Here are some similarities between both holidays.
- Both holidays have their own designated holiday breaks.
- Both holidays involve feasts. Some of the foods were used in both holidays.
- Both holidays involve family gatherings.
- In years where March 1st is on a Saturday, both holidays are the fourth Thursdays of their months.
- In years where March 1st is on a Monday, both holidays are on the 25th days of their months.
- Both holidays have a possibility with overlapping with Hanukkah.
Halloween and Christmas:
As discussed yesterday, Halloween and Christmas became assimilated in recent times. Let’s view them in a nutshell.
- Both holidays are on a fixed date.
- Both holidays are odd-numbered days in even-numbered months.
- Both holidays involve holiday lights, candy, heavy decorating, and costumes.
- Both holidays have individual candy containers (pumpkin buckets and stockings).
- Both holidays have parties for friends.
- Both holidays have nine letters in their names.
Unique Attributes:
Now that the similarities are out of the way, let’s look at what each holiday has that others don’t have. Just to get this out of the way, Halloween is about trick-or-treating, Thanksgiving is about turkey dinners, and Christmas is about opening presents.
Halloween:
Since Halloween is the first of the three holidays to occur, let’s start with Halloween.
- Halloween is only celebrated at night.
- Halloween involves a genre that dominates the holiday, which is horror.
- Halloween involves haunted houses, scary stories, and magic shows.
- Dressing up is one of the main aspects of Halloween rather than a bonus.
- Halloween is celebrated on the last day of the month.
- Halloween is a time to watch spooky movies.
Thanksgiving:
Now let’s move onto Thanksgiving since it comes before Halloween, but before Christmas.
- Thanksgiving is only observed on a certain day of the week, which is Thursday.
- While pumpkin pies can be used in all three holidays, Thanksgiving involves this the most.
- Turkey dinners are practically the only activity done on Thanksgiving.
- Holiday origins were based on a historical event opposed to ancient religious practices from more than one religion.
- Thanksgiving involves one decoration that’s used for tables – the cornucopia.
- Thanksgiving involves the most traveling.
Christmas:
And now for the last holiday of the year. Here’s what’s different about Christmas:
- Christmas is widely celebrated across the world. There’s no other holiday that has more celebrants than Christmas.
- Christmas has many holiday specials that aren’t based on other shows. Most notable ones being the Rankin/Bass specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman.
- Christmas involves a gift-giving spirit.
- Christmas involves public lights displays.
- Christmas involves many traditional songs. You even hear them on the radio once Halloween is over.
- Christmas is a religious holiday.
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