You know it’s Thanksgiving when you can’t go two minutes without seeing the phrase “pumpkin spice latte.” Everything is red, orange, and brown, and family members you haven’t seen in a year suddenly start invading your house. November also marks the beginning of the holiday season, so it’s considered officially acceptable for stores to announce Black Friday (which is now Black Wednesday through Cyber Monday) sales in order to prolong the season (and the profits) for as long as possible. The commercialism and stereotypes tend to take over the meaning of Thanksgiving, aside from those five awkward minutes at the dinner table when your grandmother asks everyone to say what they’re thankful for. Even then, that has the tendency to be forced. However, Thanksgiving embodies much more than just being grateful for the blessings you’ve received in life.
Here’s a refresher course on the history of Thanksgiving in case you’ve forgotten the details from fourth grade:
Thanksgiving was a celebration between the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Native American tribe in 1621. In the previous year, 102 people journeyed on the Mayflower from England to modern-day Massachusetts, where they established a colony named Plymouth. That winter, approximately half of the colonists died from the elements, disease, and starvation because they lived in confined quarters aboard the ship once they arrived. After the cold weather passed, they were able to move ashore and begin building. In March, a native named Squanto, who spoke English from his years spent as a captive slave, approached them and helped them learn how to survive in their new environment. The autumn after the colonists first stepped ashore, they held a feast by the order of Governor William Bradford with the Wampanoags to celebrate the interrelation between the two groups and their successful harvest season. There are several other reported instances in history of similar collaborative commemorations, such as between the Spanish and Timucua in Florida in 1565 and at Berkeley Hundred in Virginia in 1619. Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving an official holiday in 1863.
The holiday has evolved over the years into the turkey-parade-pumpkin-cidershopping-football fiasco that we all recognize. It has also become more intimate, focusing more on personal good fortune and uniting extended family for one day of fellowship. And while the feast in 1621 was about the pilgrims’ appreciation for their material prosperity, it was also just as much about their interaction with the natives, who had taught them about a new land and way of life. It was not a personal holiday, but rather one that was encompassing of two societies, two cultures. And that is what seems to be missing from the holiday we know today. Not that we shouldn’t all be grateful for what we have been given, for what our family has been given, but it should stretch beyond that. Our country has become much more diversified than just two cultures in 400 years and that should manifest itself in a holiday of these origins.
So while we are eating our pumpkin pie, watching football, and avoiding that family member, perhaps we should consider the greater ramifications of American history and holidays. Much like other things in our culture, Thanksgiving is the melding of many different traditions and that is something to celebrate.