Thanksgiving

Those who know me, are aware that I’m quite ambivalent over Thanksgiving, though I realized that I am annoyed at how the holiday is portrayed as of late.

The idea that this holiday celebrates “the stealing of land from another native peoples” is completely missing the point.
If the holiday of Thanksgiving really came from the now mythical story of how Pilgrims were given bounty from the Native Americans and so they ate together and shared their cultures and feasted together; couldn’t that be the point?

Sure, what ended up happening to the Native Americans was unfortunate, but to mesh history together into a series of end games is unfair to the spirit of the holidays.

It’d be like saying that all white people everywhere were/are responsible for the slavery and subjugation of Africans. These sort of sweeping generalizations serve nobody.

Instead of attempting to rail against yet another Hallmarked holiday (which I agree many of them have become) by trying to subvert history and make it serve the idea that “White people suck, we hurt the Native Americans”, instead try to remember where the tradition came from.

At least how I learned it, the idea was of peoples of different creeds, cultures, beliefs and backgrounds came together to feast in a time when much was unsure. Winter was coming, and these brave (yes brave) Pilgrims came to a frontier land not knowing if it would mean their deaths. Yes they escaped religious persecution, yes in hindsight it is ironic that America is a land so known for religious intolerance. Regardless, it wasn’t the same back then. People could have died simply for not having stored enough food for the winter, and with the help of the native peoples, they were able to feast and survive and learn about each other.

Whether or not the story details differ from yours, the point remains the same. To understand that we are all human and deserve open arms in a time when the natural reaction is to close them around you and your own. Winter still scares people, even subconsciously and it’s a time when family is important.

What’s interesting is that the same people who have an intolerance for the “idea” of Thanksgiving being a racist holiday or a remembrance of slaughter of a people, they are the same people who come together and call it something else but still invite other people to their house. They still believe that nobody should be alone on Thanksgiving.

The spirit of the holiday is still there, people just tend to get wrapped up in fighting against the status quo, that they think equating Thanksgiving with an attempted genocide is a fair deal.

History is grim enough on its own, let’s not do injustice to holidays meant to encourage peace and love and understanding between strangers, family, friends, or anyone. It’s a time when literally one can give thanks to what makes life worth living.