Thanksgiving is a time when Americans come together, eat and enjoy company with family and friends. As time went on, this holiday has become known as the nonsensical in-between holiday of frightful Halloween and cheerful Xmas--formerly known as Christmas.
The truest intentions of holidays have been bleached over; though as vulgar and fury filled as most usually began with. With that said here are some reasons to keep Turkey in Turkey Day.
1. The Real Thanksgiving!
The first Thanksgiving was a gathering said to be held at Plymouth Rock Dec. 11, 1621, where the Pilgrims suffered a blow of 46 or the original 102 colonists; 91 Wampanoag Indians aiding the British colonists survive the Winter. Thus the holiday's foundation was laid out; more often twisted in the favor of European settlers. The controversy is ongoing as historians have acknowledged other "Thanksgiving" celebrations such as the year 1565, according to History.com, the year has seen another European settler: Pedro Menéndez de Avilé of Spain. Pedro created a kinship with Timucua Indians, feasting at St. Augustine, Florida proposed for thanking God for safe naval travel.
2.Expressions of Gratitude?
Thanksgiving throughout the ages has undergone numerous metamorphoses--sentiment and gratitude for life and survival, oppression of neighboring people, even defeat over a tyrannical mother nation; resulting in a multitude of America's customs and values. Why is it that Turkey is the staple of this bountiful holiday when there is no significant proof that the bird was eaten; though Lobster, Seal, and Swan were on the Pilgrims' menu. With that said, the time since its origins has seen various additions from the many cultures settled in lands the colonists inhabited; in fact, cultural interference and integration regarding the friendly Squanto, a Patuxet Indian is actually a cover story for his capture in 1605 on the slave trade in Spain.
3. Ancient Roots and Praising God
The American idea of the glamorous and endless feasting of Thanksgiving was fashioned within the New England colonies, with Separatists sailing aboard the Mayflower and Puritans soon after with tradition for providential holidays. This celebration falls under the classification of festival spanning cultures and time itself: people are known as the Ancient Egyptians, Roman, and Greeks feasted and paid forth their offerings to their polytheistic beliefs for the Autumn harvest; whereas the Jewish thank God for the sheltering of the Israelites in the wilderness (Sukkot). All in all, Native Americans have been memorializing the fruit of the earth and peace predating the arrival of European settlers; it's one of the many oppressive incidents taken before the domestication of the once peaceful lands.
So, you see this holiday is way more than sports, Peanuts' specials and Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales; it is history that goes over our heads meanwhile our hands dig deeper into our pockets. It is this holiday that began with goodwill and praising God to a genocide of the Native Americans; twisted and distorted in the history books and masking the pain behind some of the oldest cultures in the world.
Sheetal Tadiparty
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