Today in my country there is a holiday called Thanksgiving being celebrated. I'm discovering that I have mixed feelings about the holiday this year.
Adult Training on the Holiday
I've long been aware that the idea of using a feast to commemorate the English Pilgrim's gratitude toward Native Americans who helped them survive harsh Winter here is a farce. As I understand it, the original genesis of the holiday was actually celebrating wiping out entire Native American villages, though Native American resources had in fact helped them survive previously.
More like Ingratitude day, IMHO. Not something I think merits a celebratory feast.
Childhood Memories
Though as an adult I've come to see the bitter side of this holiday, the reality is that as a child this was the only holiday I really enjoyed all year. Part of that is because my family made such a big deal out of it, preparing all day. And part of it was because my family mostly didn't celebrate anything, including any birthdays or Christmas.
But Thanksgiving Day we would start in the morning with polishing the silver. My grandmother would start the turkey, and baste it all day. There was also always a ham, but I never liked ham.
Everyone had a role, including me, the youngest in that multi-generational household, and my Cherokee great-grandmother. I would help set the table and fold the cloth napkins. She would bake bread pudding.
And yes, my family is part Native American, yet this holiday that was really about killing Native Americans was the only one we celebrated! I think a big part of that is that back then, few people knew the true origin and original meaning of the holiday. I was raised believing it really was a celebration of gratitude for abundance that began with Pilgrims thanking Native Americans.
It was a completely perfect day I looked forward to every single year.
Reconciling Both as an Adult
Now that I'm an adult I find that I'm torn between both knowledge and emotional meaning. The day still holds most of my happiest childhood memories, and actually my family still all gathers each year, some driving 6 hours to be there.
Since I generally live farther away than that by plane (once you include time getting to and from the airport) I have only attended a few family feasts since leaving college. But the fact that they are all there together still comforts me.
And I also almost always gather with friends for the day, each of us cooking our best dish to contribute to the feast. And the evening usually ending with live music and dance. (I know a lot of musicians.)
This year I'm in a brand new place, so was glad to get an invite from a neighbor. All I'm asked to bring is a bottle of wine, so super easy TG this year!
Yet somehow it doesn't quite feel like Thanksgiving to me today. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's because for the first time I'm living in an area that is dominated by a local reservation, such that the thinking of the place is more centered in a Native perspective. Perhaps that amplifies the true meaning of the holiday.
Or maybe it's because here people are making less of a big deal about it than other places I've lived. Don't know if that's just my perception or reality though. I haven't noticed anything about the holiday though, other than some businesses saying they'll be closed. (I always notice the inconvenience of holidays!)
Find the Gratitude in the Uncertainty
Well I can't get my emotions going fully in any direction today. Just sort of listless on an overcast day with a tech from Dell doing a warranty repair on my laptop. (He picked this day!)
Had hot dogs and chips for lunch. Oatmeal for breakfast. Yeah, no feasting yet.
But grateful.
I feel such appreciation for the warmth of my home despite how cold it is outside. Glad also to finally have the laptop working properly again (I presume). Also thankful to have someplace to go later, in case I do start feeling a longing for feasty company.
And perhaps I will find myself at a gathering full of people who have made a new meaning for this day.
Thanksgiving Genesis Story Sources
Thanks to @overkillcoin for prompting me to cite some sources for this version of the genesis story.
Here is the most complete, though the story itself starts half way down the page and the overall article is about reframing the holiday.
Here is another that that focuses more on overall injustices toward Natives, including the TG genesis.
Both sources are Native American.
Images courtesy of Pixabay:
I'm holiday non-compliant... If I understand that a holiday's roots go against my values, I don't really participate... If I wouldn't have been comfortable celebrating a holiday in its original form, I sort of lose respect for the following generations that watered it down, sugar-coated it or otherwise marketed it.
Do you have any historical sources where you drew your conclusion about Thanksgiving? I'd sincerely like to learn. I don't celebrate it myself but I'm very interested in history.
I took a bit of heat recently because I made a twitter remark about halloween... so far as I know, people were killed to appease spirits in the druid's Samhain (the forerunner to halloween)... To me, that deflates the day, no matter how much candy and marketing gets thrown at it...
Maybe I'm just a prude, but I'm more about following convictions I guess.
I just did a quick search where I expected to find the original article I saw on this that reminded me of this recently, but can't figure out who shared it. In searching I did come across a similar telling of the story, though the overall article is making a different point on the issue:
This is from this article which goes into much more depth about how the holiday actually evolved after multiple attempts to get it off the ground.
This source also makes reference to the same genesis of the first use of the term, though not the first official holiday celebration within the continuous line of the holiday.
I totally see your point in only celebrating (or choosing not to) the genesis intentions of a holiday. This one seems to have some controversy over its genesis story.
It certainly does feel different! As we have also gotten farther from family, it is less of an event these says for sure. I also think it has become so much of a commercialized and consumer driven holiday that it has lost the essence of the thought of giving thanks. I am sure that the workers preparing inventory and getting ready for the thousands of consumer fighting over things are not very thankful today. It has turned into a “saving by spending” day in my opinion!
Interesting take on it. You're reminding me of the memes I've seen about not starting Xmas preparations before TG. It's like our country can't find meaning in anything that isn't about spending and acquiring stuff. Maybe there is less of a feeling of the holiday in general.
This is exactly the same conflict we have on our Australia Day, which others call 'Invasion Day' or 'Survival Day' and mourn about the atrocities of colonialism, and others celebrate by painting their face with the flag, going to the beach, drinking beers all day and having a barbecue.
Did you grow up celebrating it in happy ignorance like I did?
Do you find you are able to cast a different meaning for the day yourself, one rid of its genesis?
(Btw, I just added some links to source articles to the OP.)
Not really ignorance - when I was a kid it was in the school holidays anyway, and it wasn't really about getting people together in the way Thanksgiving was. In a very Aussie was it's more about drinking and barbies, which wasn't what my folks were into. And then as soon as we were old enough to 'get it' there was a lot of awareness of what it 'really' meant. My folks were very conscious of that too.
No, the meaning of the day to me is staled by it's genesis, and I am usually very vocally against it because of this reason. There was a call to change it to May 8th - (m8, maaate - ugh) but I'm not sure they will. There is a big debate about it here everyyear.
"And perhaps I will find myself at a gathering full of people who have made a new meaning for this day."
This is the key to most holidays. Most events we celebrate are in fact a figment of our imagination. We celebrate events with tragedy woven into their conception.
We are all to busy, and any event that is going to give me a chance to gather with my family, is reason enough for me to celebrate.
Many holidays have been conjured up in-order to create commerce.
Events we all should reflect on have been commercialized to the point of utter disgust.
Remembering, sympathizing, honoring, and celebrating on scheduled dates, can be "a gathering full of people who have made a new meaning for this day."
Life goes by in a blink of an eye, and is to short.
There are so many issues that haunt humanity, it is nice to be able to take a break once in a while!
Have a lovely and joyful day!
So true, and thankfully that is how it turned out. Not only that, but I got to talk about this article during dessert, after someone else brought up issues related to Native Americans. And it wound up being a great conversation where we could all affirm together that we were embracing a different meaning for the holiday solely about giving thanks for abundance of all kinds.
Glad to hear you gathered with your family yesterday, as I suspected you would get to. Have a great holiday weekend as well!
Happy Thanksgiving @indigoocean.
Thank you!
look fantasty good job
Congratulations @indigoocean! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click here to view your Board of Honor
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
Congratulations,
you just received a 12.58% upvote from @steemhq - Community Bot!
Wanna join and receive free upvotes yourself?
Vote for
steemhq.witnesson Steemit or directly on SteemConnect and join the Community Witness.This service was brought to you by SteemHQ.com
Hi @indigoocean!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 4.657 which ranks you at #1599 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has improved 10 places in the last three days (old rank 1609).
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 213 contributions, your post is ranked at #12.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server