Thanksgiving is sandwiched right in-between Halloween and Christmas, two of the biggest U.S. holidays. It doesn’t consist of gift-giving like Christmas, or elaborate costumes like Halloween, leaving it oftentimes a neglected, undermined holiday. Thanksgiving is often celebrated for the time spent with family, eating good food and enjoying the day off, but that isn’t how Thanksgiving was created nor is it why the holiday is celebrated. The origins of Thanksgiving are much more sinister.
The original Thanksgiving tradition started when the pilgrims arrived to the Americas in 1620 and conflict erupted with the native Wampanoag people. Much of this conflict involved aggression and fighting over control of land and led to the loss of many Native American lives. The following year however, a feast was shared between the pilgrims and the native people to celebrate a successful harvest. Yes, you heard that right. After killing and forcing the native population off of their own land, they decided to hold a feast with said natives. With this historical context, we can obviously see what is wrong with celebrating a holiday with such tragic, gruesome beginnings, but does this truly warrant the holiday to be forgotten in its entirety? Or does it mean we should just grit our teeth and forget the past?
Though Thanksgiving is the result of our brutal colonial history, that simply is not what most people are thinking of when celebrating the holiday. In fact, most people are thinking about how lucky they are to have a holiday break where they can just spend time with their loved ones and eat good food away from their busy day-to-day lives, however this presents a problem. If we let this dark past fade away, then we have failed to “keep alive” the hundreds of Native Americans who were violently slaughtered in the name of imperialism. However, if we allow ourselves to be consumed in the negative history of Thanksgiving, then we run the risk of failing to recognize the change that has occurred within the past 400 years, which is a shift from a celebration of conquering to a celebration of family and loved ones. This switch is a key part of the history of Thanksgiving because it displays how people can recognize something wrong and fix it. The fact that this change was able to occur somewhere down the line is more than enough reason to continue celebrating the holiday. We as a society should be able to celebrate and make the most of Thanksgiving while still remembering the disturbing past that spawned it.
A Dark Past Kept Alive: Why we celebrate Thanksgiving
Noble Hart, Opinion Writer
November 26, 2024
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About the Contributor
Noble Hart, Opinion Writer
Noble Hart is a sophomore and it's his first year on the Zephyr. He transferred from R.J. Reynolds High School and is excited to work on the Zephyr this year and write opinion articles. When he's not writing, he is often going for a walk or hanging out with his friends.