Giving thanks.

[starlady]

It's Thanksgiving in the States; and a Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating.

The ignoble origins of the holiday ought not go unacknowledged, but I am equally interested in being grateful for what I do have: my family, by blood and by choice, scattered across three time zones as we are; my friends, including all of you, on the majority of the continents; and my position in my graduate program, which is the place I want to be, and is still a very good place indeed.

I have no idea what Thanksgiving dinner tonight will consist of (though I've already had pumpkin pie), and ditto for Thanksgiving dinner #2 tomorrow, but in the end it's less about the food than about being together, and I'm glad to be here in Portland with my sister. Happy Thanksgiving or Happy Thursday to all of you.

(And Happy Birthday, ellen_fremedon!)

Comments

[csg-dear4life.livejournal.com]

Happy Thanksgiving! ^__^

[ellen_fremedon]

Thank you! It has been a good birthday.

[starlady]

You're welcome! I hope there was turkey, and cake. But not turkey cake (unless you wanted turkey cake).

[ellen_fremedon]

There was cranberry cake, and carnitas with homemade tortillas. It was all very good.

[ninj]

I mentioned something about the ignoble origins of the holiday at work the other day, and people just looked at me blankly. And then and I swear "No, Thanksgiving was when we sat down with the Indians and had dinner. There was no murder or landgrab. Rachel, where did you learn your history? It's a peaceful holiday." I died. A lot. And then spent 20 minutes giving them my highly edited and not 100% historically accurate description of the history of European Settlers and American Indians. I think it was a waste of my time.

[djkittycat]

Land grab aside, which is ignoble. The holiday did not originate as such with any feast the Puritans might have had. Yes, it was a feast of thanksgiving, but there have been many.

It originated as a reconciliation feast after the civil war, as far as I know.

The apocryphal story of the "first thanksgiving" was tacked on at a later date.

[starlady]

Well, there certainly were feasts of thanksgiving in the colonial period, and the first one is attested according to 1491 in 1619. But to some extent when the first such thanksgiving was held doesn't really matter, because in the discourse about the holiday its origins have been pushed back to that earlier date.

[starlady]

Oh man, your coworkers. Would it make them feel better if you told them that at least 95% of the Indians in the northeast died of the settlers' diseases, as opposed to their bullets?

[spacevlad.livejournal.com]

Hey, at least it's not as bad of a reason to have a holiday as Columbus Day!