Hypocritical Holidays

There is only one thing that would merit eating turkey on the third Thursday of each November: being with my family. That's the only reason why I indulge in this piece of crap holiday: Thanksgiving. And I know that I'm pessimistic about a lot of things, including life itself, but I hate Thanksgiving more than any other holiday. What happens is, we "give thanks" for all the blessings we have, like our health, our family, our friends, and that fat turkey sitting on the table waiting to be devoured. But has anyone really thought about the history of Thanksgiving, or what happened subsequently afterwards?

The original Plymouth colony and the Wampanoag tribe of Native Americans sat down to have the first Thanksgiving in 1621, and it was peaceful. Thanksgiving was meant originally as a day of reverence to God for a bountiful harvest and blessings showered upon man. But as the 17th century unfolded, more and more Puritans came to America, and because they were dying of massive famine, they persecuted and all but annihilated the Wampanoag tribe with a new element of America: bullets. Today, there is so much disdain for the holiday amongst Native Americans that they renamed it a "National Day of Mourning" in 1970. Just think about how the Native Americans view Thanksgiving: a day of feasting, resting, and eventually running from the new white people in their land.

Now, I'm not advocating the abolishment of Thanksgiving, that is to say I love the turkey part. But we must understand the true foundation of the holiday, and the subsequent years afterward where there was only an interest in survival and hatred. I don't want to put a damper on this holiday, but I can't help but think how truly hypocritical it really is. Maybe I'm being overly dramatic and standing up for a meaningless point, but it is worth noting that the original people in this land don't recognize this highly Christian (and commercialized) third Thursday of November. If I'm making too big of a deal about this, then you can ignore this whole blog, but those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, and I don't plan on persecuting anyone anytime soon. We should all cherish this holiday. We should all understand what it means, and what our actions in our daily lives will do to others. Even if you're stuffing your face with turkey and cranberry sauce, please realize that a lot of people aren't, and that when we can all get along in the spirit of being good human beings, we can truly call this day Thanksgiving.

Enjoy the stuffing.