Prayer police? City of Birmingham urges ‘skipping the hand-holding’ around Thanksgiving table

The City of Birmingham on Monday afternoon released a video with some rather specific recommendations of what people not do this Thanksgiving.

Mayor Randall Woodfin opens the video by noting the message is intended “especially for our Birmingham city employees.”

The video, shared with the hashtag “#DontDoThat,” subsequently transitions to an on-screen narrator commenting on clips and images which people should — per the City — avoid replicating.

“Remember: practice social distancing and make sure you limit, as much as possible, your in-person contacts to people in your household,” the narrator says after asking viewers not to travel at all during the holiday season.

A clip then plays of two people answering the front door of their house to greet two other people, presumably family members, who are wheeling suitcases. The four people then prepare to hug, before the action pauses and the narrator yells, “Ahhhhhh, don’t do that.”

The narrator then outlines the recommendation that people should not spend Thanksgiving or any other holiday with family members — or anyone — not in their immediate households this year.

“[A]void shaking hands and hugging,” the narrator adds, pointing to the still-paused hugs about to occur on-screen. “That’s a no-no.”

The next clip shows six individuals, all wearing masks, assembled in a home dining room. One individual beckons for the others to gather around; they then begin to do so and prepare to hold hands, as people often do in prayer.

The clip comes to a halt, with the narrator pointing to the imagery and warning, “Don’t do that.”

“This Thanksgiving, give thanks but consider skipping the hand-holding,” he continues.

The narrator subsequently cautions that the CDC is recommending gatherings of no more than 10 people.

The video shows an image on-screen of four people sitting at a dining table: one adult male, one adult female and two children.

“That’s about right,” the narrator remarks of that image.

Another activity specifically recommended that people not do by the City of Birmingham video also included playing Twister.

WATCH:

View recommendations from the CDC here.

RELATED: Dr. Scott Harris: No shutdown needed ‘if people can just follow the guidance that we have in place now’

Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn