Thanksgiving - the true story behind it

[Art Blade]

There is definitely something nice about settlers and native Americans sitting together and feasting together. Which is what I understand most people like about Thanksgiving, the coming-together for a feast.

I find it strange how, from as far as I can tell, Thanksgivings are celebrated with only half of the original crew, the white settlers, but without the other half of the crew, the red native Americans. It would look more like celebrating a traditional feast by reenacting it so it actually resembled the past and that I imagine would require invitations sent out to both white and red Americans, to once again celebrate together. But the Indian Council site makes it clear what Indians think about that. They don't feel like celebrating Thanksgiving.

Maybe you can shed some light on that, do you recall any Thanksgiving you participated in with Indians celebrating together with you?

***

There's something I need to pick up on. Let's be clear about the "racist brush." I choose not to ignore racism.

a purely unbiased person of color [and] Opinion Columnist

If skin colour didn't matter to you, you wouldn't have mentioned it. So of course I picked up on that by explicitly naming red and white skin colours and yes, it worked on you just as yours worked on me. I quoted you just to remind you of your remark which was intended to discredit Mr Blow by mentioning his skin colour and amplifying it with a cynical remark about his bias and by that downplaying anything he said and, kind of to top it off, because he wasn't a journalist but an opinion columnist. Interesting is that apparently you would have had less problems with the same article had it been written by a non-coloured journalist rather than a coloured opinion columnist.

Just to point out to you what I think Mr Blow's message is and why I think his opinion is worth reading:

Don't celebrate Thanksgiving by glorifying the past.
Because part of that same past was a conflict resulting in white men killing red men. Not in a one on one fight but in a fight between one ever growing group of whites and an ever shrinking group of reds, to the point of reds becoming meaningless in their own country.

With regards to his skin colour, I find it very interesting that a black man points out that fact. Had it been a white man, it might have looked a bit phony. Had it been a red man, it might have looked a bit pathetic. But a black man who is not part of either side of that conflict is actually more neutral than anyone of them. So, being black, he can actually afford to have an opinion on that.

I don't think he'd have been allowed to voice it on a media platform like, say, Breitbart.

So we will need to agree to disagree as to whether the annual onslaught of demeaning and discrediting voices against Thanks Giving Day is political or not.

By now I think, yes, I agree, the political background you are pointing at actually is playing a role.

I said at the start that I wasn't aware of it.

Now I am.

[fragger]

It's nigh impossible really to pin down exactly what took place almost 400 years ago. Whether the "idealized" form of the story is true or the "gritty" version is, I can't profess to know. But by all accounts, the truth does appear to lie a lot closer to the "nice" version of the story than the "nasty" one. What little common sense I might possess tends to point me towards the traditional tale as being the correct one. It just seems more likely given the nature of the Pilgrims, who were themselves fleeing from oppression. The account is almost certain to have been embellished or romanticized over the years to some extent as such things almost always are, but wholesale slaughter of natives certainly doesn't appear to have been on the Pilgrims' agenda, or in their mindset. That was a task for much later generations to undertake.

I'd be curious to know how many Americans really think about the origins of the occasion anyway when they're having a Thanksgiving guts-up I must confess, I don't think a great deal about Jesus when I'm stuffing myself with Christmas goodies or Easter eggs. Different thing maybe. Or maybe not.

Which reminds me of something I saw once. I went into a newsagency to pick up a newspaper and there were only two other people in there - a young lady behind the counter and another customer, a middle-aged woman who was looking at Christmas cards. While I was making my way to the papers, I heard the customer say to the employee, "Excuse me, do you have any religious Christmas cards?"

I stole a glance and the girl on the counter looked truly baffled. She asked, "What do you mean by 'religious'?"

"You know - cards with Jesus on them, or the Three Wise Men or the Nativity, that kind of thing".

The girl had absolutely NO idea of what the woman was on about. To this day, she's probably still telling her friends about the whacko who once came into the shop at Christmas time asking for Jesus cards.

[Art Blade]

funny story

Regarding holidays, I think a great deal of people are just enjoying a day off w0#k without thinking about the origins of those holidays. However, regarding religious holidays, for instance Christmas, I know quite a few religious people who take the first part seriously as in they go to church, but the second part still ends up in "traditional family fights."

As to Thanksgiving, without going to the origins of it I think it's just about the same thing. I keep finding articles on what to do to avoid family fights, recommendations what to say and what not to, for the same reason. For instance, don't say, "your turkey is as good as ever: stringy and dry and I'd much rather eat some of the dog's food than this."

[fragger]

 

Surely there must be some families whose Thanksgivings don't get ugly


I love this line from an episode of Frasier:

"And now, if you don't mind, I have guests on the way - and a turkey so undercooked, a skilled veterinarian could still save him".

[Art Blade]

 

[PZ]

  

My Thanksgiving doesn't get ugly - my wife and I cook all day and we don't invite anyone over 

[BinnZ]

...and a turkey so undercooked, a skilled veterinarian could still save him.

I ate a turkey like that once in Peru. Well, I started with it, but after a few bites I let it fly off and focussed on the wine instead

[Art Blade]

that's why I use an oven with a heavy door. To stop stuff from escaping before it's well done.

[PZ]