Today marks ‘Thanksgiving Day’ over in the US, but what exactly is it and why aren’t we getting a slice of the traditional pumpkin pie?
So what exactly is Thanksgiving Day as we know it now? What’s the purpose for it?
When it’s all boiled down into a delicious turkey based broth, Thanksgiving Day is just another religious based holiday. Basically, it’s kind of like any of our Patron Saint days over here… just with a lot less booze and a lot more turkey. Instead of being thankful that some lad named Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland, Thanksgiving marks the day that you should be thankful for what you have.
So when did it first start?
This is a bit of a tricky one as Florida, Texas, Maine and Virginia each declare itself the site of the First Thanksgiving and historical documents support the various claims, apparently. But the most famous Thanksgiving was held back in 1621 in south-eastern Massachusetts. Here’s where the history buffs will shine…
Back then, a group of 101 English men, women and children all made a 66-day journey from Holland to USA in order to escape the strict traditions of the Protestant Church of England. The settlers originally settled in Holland but once their money ran dry they decided to head for the US or ‘The New World’ as it was known back then. Upon arrival to the New World on a ship called the Mayflower (ring any bells?) the English settlers were met by Native Americans who already knew how to speak English.
How is that important?
Well, it was the relationship that was struck between the Native Americans and the new settlers that would lead to the ‘first’ Thanksgiving Day. The Native Americans helped out their new settler friends by giving them some farming tips and by making a pact to protect each other from the vicious Native tribes that still roamed around.
I still haven’t heard anything about a massive feast?
Would you wait, I’m getting there… So, up until this point the settlers were having no luck with farming and many of the settlers were dying off due to illness. But thanks to the Native’s farming tips, the settlers had an unprecedented autumn harvest. So to mark the occasion and to say ‘thanks’ for the whopper haul, the settlers decided to have a massive feast. So off the settlers went to hunt for some meat with their ‘Old World’ guns. This frightened the sh*te out of the Natives who thought their new English buddies were actually preparing for a surprise war, so the Chief and 90 of his men knocked around to see what was happening. However, when they saw that the English were just hunting for food they decided to join in and they scored a massive amount of meat for their feast.
After they had collected enough food for a three day feast, the settlers and the Natives had one big party to celebrate the good harvest – as was the tradition in olde England. The ate, drank, sang and danced until they couldn’t handle it anymore.
So when did this become a religious thing?
The first ‘religious’ Thanksgiving Day wasn’t held until 1623 in Plymouth, when settlers thanked the Lord for rain after two whole months of drought. Back in 1621, the settlers were just thankful they weren’t dead.
Ah right, so do the Natives still celebrate Thanksgiving?
Eh… no, not exactly. The peace between the Mayflower settlers and the Natives only lasted one generation. The settlers eventually killed off most of their Native ‘friends’ and Native Americans see the holiday today as a reminder of betrayal and bloodshed.
King of the Hill summed it up nicely in this episode:
