March 29, 2024

Thanksgiving: Then and Now

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The traditional Thanksgiving image of the pilgrims and Indians coming together for a meal is one of the most iconic holiday concepts in the United States. Thanksgiving is in fact often seen as a truly American holiday, and many people take great pride in the fact that the United States has a national holiday devoted to the idea of giving thanks. Thanksgiving, however, has a very different history than the one that most of us learned in elementary school.

Most people tie the first Thanksgiving back to Plymouth plantation, and the Pilgrims’ first harvest. This occurred in 1621, and while the popular image is of the Pilgrims inviting the Native Americans over to share in their feast, the reality is that the Pilgrims invited only the Wampanoag chief, Massasoit, who then brought with him some 90 members of his tribe. And for such an iconic event in early American history, only two short passages have survived which describe it. Neither of these call the event, or even use the word, “Thanksgiving.” Rather, this was most likely seen as a harvest feast, a fairly common event which mandated that people of a community give thanks to God for their bounty. Not only would this have been common across Europe at this time, but it is a phenomenon which spanned (and does still span) many cultures.
Another version of a “first Thanksgiving” may have occurred two years later for the pilgrims, when another harvest feast was issued. This was called for by Governor William Bradford, which is significant because it very well could have been the first thanksgiving event called for by a civil official, rather than a religious official, in New England.

Either way, the traditional Thanksgiving story perseveres, and it has garnered significant controversy in recent years because it portrays a picture of European and Native American unity and benevolence. If you take a look at almost any era of European and Native American relations outside of this one moment in history, however, the reality is sadly very far from the harmonic Thanksgiving image. About 90 percent of Native Americans were killed by diseases brought over by Europeans. The remaining Native Americans were often captured and sold into slavery. As Europeans took more and more land, a series of wars broke out, such as the Pequot War and King Phillip’s War, although military violence between European, and then American, forces with Native Americans can be traced from 1492 to well into the 19th century.

One striking example of how the benevolent Thanksgiving image is horribly uncharacteristic of succeeding (and preceding) relations is with the Mystic Massacre. Occurring in 1637 during the Pequot War, a combined force made up primarily of English Puritans attacked a Native American fort where they killed somewhere between 400 and 700 Native American men, women, and children. To celebrate the success, the next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared a day of thanksgiving.

It’s important to note the history that the Thanksgiving story disregards, but at the same time Thanksgiving today is very different then what it was nearly four centuries ago. It has developed, as all things do, to a different cultural significance than it originally had. When we think about the modern Thanksgiving we can trace it back to when it was originally instated as a national holiday, in 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln, as a day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” Although this is a decidedly religious statement for a government that prides itself on the idea of separation of church and state, the core that has arisen from it is universal: a day to express gratitude and thankfulness for all that we have.

It is somewhat ironic then that the day after we celebrate thankfulness is one of the biggest commercial shopping days of the year with Black Friday. And in recent years many stores offer Black Friday deals on the night of Thanksgiving as well. In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt even moved Thanksgiving up a week, to the third week in November, in the attempt to boost the economy by allowing more time for Christmas shopping (it was later moved back in 1941).

At the same time it has also become a holiday that advocates for food donations and volunteer work to fight hunger. It inspires food drives and volunteers who work together to feed those less fortunate in their communities. Thousands of people come out to work in soup kitchens; thousands more spend their time making thanksgiving baskets and delivering them to those who otherwise wouldn’t have a turkey on their table. Thanksgiving often opens up a spotlight on charity work, paving the way for further donations and aid within the broader holiday season. And even if that original image of the Pilgrims and Indians coming together is a false one, the sentiment it has given us is very real. Thanksgiving is a time to extend that olive branch – to come together. It is a breath, a pause of thanks.

Thanksgiving has a turbulent history at best, and it has become, (like many things today) a very commercialized endeavor. Despite this, in the modern tradition it is unlike any other holiday in America. It is a national holiday that revolves around eating a meal. This is iconic because it becomes something that innately brings people together. It revolves around the idea of sitting down with family and friends and sharing a meal together while you reflect on what you have to be thankful for. Whatever Thanksgiving once was and whatever it will evolve to be, this year it will hopefully be one of thanks, remembrance, and family.

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