What is Thanksgiving?

When I was growing up, I was taught that Thanksgiving started with the Pilgrims and Indians. The Pilgrims had a horrible winter and would have starved to death were it not for the kindness of the Indians. As I aged I learned about the massacre of the Indians, who should be called Native Americans, and instead of the Pilgrims just being helpless colonist they were actually responsible for murder, mayhem, destruction and theft. I decided, at that time, that I wouldn’t be a supporter of Thanksgiving anymore. As I think back, it was likely just an excuse to get out of family gatherings. As ignorant and uncaring as it sounds, while the destruction of the Native American people is horrible, my juvenile self was much more self centered. It was always a holiday I shied away from because of my preconceived notions of negativity, but never bothered to really learn about, as so many “facts” circulated society. As I come into adulthood and have a family of my own, I feel it’s time to take another look at this American holiday, find out what its origins are, and really assess the validity of my earlier decision.

My first stop in learning was Wikipedia. While not always the most accurate, I find it to encompass a lot of information and I make sure to look at the citations before taking anything literally. My focus, also, is on the United States Thanksgiving Day. From my reading, it seems no one really knows when the first Thanksgiving was had, but that most everything that was taught concerning it is a lie.

The first recorded Thanksgiving was held by the Spaniards in 1565 in thanks of their arrival in a new world. The article specifically lists it as “Mass of Thanksgiving”, and given that Roman Catholicism is the major religion in Spain gives implication that this was a religious ceremony. The next recorded celebration was in 1619 when the Virginia colony gave thanks to God on the first day of their arrival per the group’s charter. Next, in 1621, the Pilgrims and Wampanoag surfaced with their Thanksgiving celebration. A major element with this, however, is that these people didn’t regard their celebration as “Thanksgiving”, as we do now, but as a celebration of the harvest which was traditional for both culture prior to this. While the Native Americans did teach the Pilgrims how to catch eel and grow corn, it was not the great feast and friendship that Charlie Brown would have people believe. Especially since a year later the Indian Massacre of 1622 took place. From this point, the idea of Thanksgiving was primarily based upon colony and culture:

The Pilgrims did not hold a true Thanksgiving until 1623, when it followed a drought, prayers for rain, and a subsequent rain shower. Irregular Thanksgivings continued after favorable events and days of fasting after unfavorable ones. In the Plymouth tradition, a thanksgiving day was a church observance, rather than a feast day.

Gradually, an annual Thanksgiving after the harvest developed in the mid-17th century. This did not occur on any set day or necessarily on the same day in different colonies in America.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony (consisting mainly of Puritan Christians) celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time in 1630, and frequently thereafter until about 1680, when it became an annual festival in that colony; and Connecticut as early as 1639 and annually after 1647, except in 1675. The Dutch in New Netherland appointed a day for giving thanks in 1644 and occasionally thereafter.

Charlestown, Massachusetts held the first recorded Thanksgiving observance June 29, 1671 by proclamation of the town’s governing council.

During the 18th century individual colonies commonly observed days of thanksgiving throughout each year. We might not recognize a traditional Thanksgiving Day from that period, as it was not a day marked by plentiful food and drink as is today’s custom, but rather a day set aside for prayer and fasting.

During the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) in 1777, after victory at the Battles of Saratoga, the first National Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed by the Continental Congress to be on December 18th. The Continental Congress also proclaimed additional Thanksgiving Days every year or so throughout the war until 1784. These proclamations were heavily laced with Christian language and in support of the “just and necessary war” and very rarely done in November. No Thanksgiving proclamations were made again until 1789 when George Washington issued one as the first President of the United States. It wasn’t until 1863, under Abraham Lincoln, that Thanksgiving began to be celebrated annually on the last Thursday in November, without a government proclamation. It was Franklin D. Roosevelt that broke this tradition, and moved Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November when the month had five, and the third when the month had four. Finally, in 1941 that the U.S. Congress passed a law dictating that Thanksgiving be celebrated annually on the fourth Thursday in November. Thus the holiday has evolved into what it is today.

The history of Thanksgiving in 700 words, ladies and gentlemen. If you’re still with me, congrats and thanks. What this all seems to boil down to, for me at least, is that Thanksgiving’s roots are in religious (namely Christian) celebration, praise of victory in wartimes, or when neither of the two were available, just a good ole slap on the back for America and praise for “the Almighty”. Even when the celebration was had for wartime, the proclamations were decidedly Christian in nature. So while families may not play up the religious side of the holiday, it definitely stems from religion. However, does that make it a religious holiday? As someone considering converting to Judaism, should I be partaking of this holiday because it is part of the history of my country despite the Christian connotations? Should I ignored the history of the holiday and instead focus on the ideal of thanking God, or my family, or myself for all that has been accomplished and received? Should I just be thankful and celebrate without worrying myself so much about what Thanksgiving really means? Is Thanksgiving just another consumerist holiday like St. Valentine’s?

Knowing what you now do about Thanksgiving, what are your thoughts?

In The Election Aftermath

I’ve refrained from posting about politics. Mostly because everyone else is talking about it so much, I was sick of it, and thus I’m sure a lot of others are sick too. I did vote and it was for Obama. I wanted to vote for a third-party candidate, because I wanted to speak out about the two party system our country seemed to be focused on, but this was such a pivotal election. I was terrified McCain would win, and I would never forgive myself if I didn’t vote for a party that had a chance of being elected. So there you go. I did experience a couple things on Facebook which I wanted to share with you all.

To protect people’s privacy, I’m going to call my friend Gandalf, who has two other friends: Shelob and Sauron.

Gandalf just donated his status to get out the vote for Barack Obama on Nov 4. Donate your status: http://causes.com/election/26350696?m=773350e e.via Causes – 8:55pm

Shelob at 9:05pm November 2
Unless you want to vote for LIFE, then pick someone else.

Gandalf at 9:17pm November 2
I don’t know that the whole pro-life/pro-choice debate is even worth having. Regardless of whether or not Obama or McCain is elected, neither one has the direct power to reverse Roe vs. Wade, so I’m not sure it particularly matters where they stand on the issue either way. Regardless, the whole abortion debate… it’s a fundamental belief a person has, and no matter how many convincing arguments you cite to support one side, the other side has equally convincing arguments to support theirs. The only difference is people on either side have chosen to weight one set of arguments more important to themselves than the other. No debate will change that.

Instead of the polarizing “YOU WANT TO KILL BABIES” vs “YOU HATE WOMEN AND ARE DENYING THEM THEIR RIGHT TO CHOOSE” argument, can we not agree instead to debate something more constructive, like how to lower the number of unwanted/teenage pregnancies?

ME at 4:01am November 3
I love you Gandalf and I think you make a good point. However, since you don’t have someone else dictating what you can and can’t do with your body, I think you can easily take that position. The problem, for me, is not that simply Roe vs. Wade but the fact women don’t have autonomy. Do you realize how difficult it is for a woman to be able to say she doesn’t want children? Not only are there romantic problems, especially with heterosexual, and societal ones (society seems to have adverse reactions to adoption. For some reason, a child sharing DNA w/ a parent makes them more accepted than one who doesn’t, and a wife isn’t fulfilling her duties if she doesn’t produce heirs, and apparently the whole purpose of life is to produce children), but doctors won’t even allow a woman to decide if she can be sterile. A man can get a vasectomy whenever he want without anyone’s permission, including his wife. However, a woman can’t get her tubes tied, or other forms of sterilization, without a long fight. If she is married, then she has to get her husband’s permission and prove this to doctor. If she is under 25 then she has to get several doctors to okay it. If she is over 25 then she still has to prove herself. Even if she’s in her 40s and childfree, doctors are reluctant. If a woman chooses to abstain from sex so she doesn’t get pregnant then she is considered a prude, or frigid, or a slew of other things. You know how difficult it is to live in our culture without sex. Anyway, it’s about more than just abortion.

Shelob at 9:54am November 3
You bring up some excellent points. Please understand I am answering you both in a soft voice with my blood pressure not accelerated in the least. Life is a rugged journey, no doubt. I am facing some really serious health issues myself, however, I believe you both have a choice. You make your choices depending upon your experiences and your beliefs. Your parents, teachers, and friends have helped you to formulate your opinions and over the course of time you will change your opinion as your experiences and beliefs change. Many of my friends can not have children. They want to adopt. There are no babies in this country to adopt so they are forced to go outside the United States to find a child. Aborted babies have no choice. The biggest killing in the world is not war, it’s abortion.

ME at 4:05am November 4
As I explained earlier not everyone has choices. Of course, it is your friend’s choice to insist on adopting a baby, thus needing to go out of the country, instead of adopting one of the millions of older children that need homes and love.

I think I pretty much summed up how I felt about this situation. It just amazes me every time a woman spouts this kind of crap. I feel so naive because I still don’t grasp the fact that some people always feel they need to tell others how to live. I am also amazed by the fact that even when presented with information about things people are still like “Really? Well, you’re still a murderer! You have a choice! You make baby jesus cry!” Seriously? The reason people shouldn’t be allowed to have abortions is because your friends can’t adopt an American baby and have to go overseas? Are you kidding me? Would this woman also be one to complain that mothers on welfare keep having babies and then the government has to keep paying for them? Or that a woman is frigid, or mistreating her husband because she doesn’t want to have sex in order to keep from getting pregnant? Or perhaps she would be the one to vote to ban birth control all together, so women are then forced to propagate. It just all makes me so frustrated and angry and GRRR.

The next quote is really long, so I’m putting it behind a link. The naming scheme is the same as above, except there are some other folks commenting as well. I posted the whole thing so people could follow, but I’m mostly focusing on the words of Sauron.

Know Your Voting Rights: Write-in

With the election coming up, there have been more and more campaigns for voting. People who aren’t registered, or who choose not to vote, are splattered with names and accusations. These people are referred to as apathetic, or told they don’t have a right to voice their opinions about the state of their country due to this. I don’t agree at all. Someone who doesn’t vote still has every right to disagree. Let’s be honest here, voting does not always mean anything. I’m sure we all remember in 2000 when Al Gore won the popular vote but was still not elected as president. I am not encouraging people to stop voting, nor am I saying that voting does not count. What I am saying is the current way the system works, and the way people view elections, causes the system, in part, to fail.

Growing up I thought there were two possible choices for president. These were a Democratic candidate and a Republican one. I didn’t even realize there were other parties. It wasn’t until I was in my early 20s that anyone even clued me into the fact there was numerous political parties. I live in a rural area in the South, so obviously my education was indicative to my surroundings. My family is Democratic and no other political view is given any merit or allowed discussion in their homes. My situation is not dissimilar to many Americans. From an early age the elections seem to be two party, the media, the population, the educational system, they all revolve around two parties. It doesn’t help that a majority of the presidents have been members of these two parties. Thus people believe they have to choose between two people. That’s all the choice they have.

This is where I understand why people feel voting doesn’t matter. Presidential candidates, especially those of the Democratic and Republican parties, spend hundreds of millions of dollars for campaigning. Where does this money come from? Easy. It comes from lobbyist, organizations, and individuals all with their own agendas for how politics should go. Now, it would seem that a candidate would only receive donations from these places if they coincide with the candidate’s policies, only, let’s face reality. An organization is going to support whoever they think will win in order to get their agenda pushed. That’s the way this country works. We’re capitalists, money makes the world go ’round as unfortunate as it is. I’m not saying all candidates are crooks or there are bribes going on, but I am saying that when a corporation has a larger donor, that donor gets more perks than anyone else. A President can have all the best intentions in the world, but once they are elected those large donors want to see their money being put to good use. It’s frustrating and infuriating to realize this. I know when I took a PoliSci class I felt my heart break. I really felt as though the election didn’t matter and I had no say about how my country was going to be run.

Then my professor brought up the other political parties, that one could write-in candidates and voters weren’t stuck voting for one of two people. Holy Crackers, why did no one clue me into this fact from the beginning? There are candidates who don’t get hundreds of millions of dollars in donations and therefore are less likely to be a puppet on strings? I’m in.

Now, each state has it’s own procedure on who qualifies as a write-in. The write-in candidates are sometimes hard to find, but a little googlefu often works wonders. I found a list on wikipedia. There are other websites which provide information also. I have tried to find resources off-line which provide all the candidates running for president, but have been unable to do so. I’m sure the local voter’s registration office would provide some information on how to find out though.

I think it’s important for those people who feel their vote doesn’t count to be educated on the fact there are other options. I do agree voting between Democrat and Republican doesn’t mean much. Yes, their campaigns and policies can be quite different but once they get into office, is change really going to be obtainable? I’m skeptical to say the least. However, if people are able to move away from the focus of two parties, to see the vast selection that is there but less publicized, I think that is the kind of voting that could change things. I look at candidates like Nader, who has been running every term since 1994 on a shoestring budget, without other people telling him where to stand and not needing to kiss the asses of any group, and I wonder if more people saw this man, standing on his own, trying to speak for the people instead of the organizations, would folks still feel there is no hope?

So, instead of telling people to vote or die, calling them apathetic, hurling insults and criticism, and trying to dictate what rights they have based on whether they do something you feel they should do, perhaps take another route. Ask the if they’re aware of write-in candidates, if they know about the other presidential options, see if it’s ignorance that’s standing in the way. It might make all the difference, I know it has for me.