Thanksgiving... I'm wondering how many Americans know the origin of this feast? (without Googling it!!)
I was taught this in secondary school so I know, and I'm not American.

Reason for asking... just came across an American elsewhere who was totally shocked it isn't celebrated in Europe. Which leads me to think she doesn't even know the meaning, the origin, of it otherwise she would've known why it isn't celebrated outside America.

So do you know and with that, understand that it's an American thing? Or did you too think it is celebrated in Europe or even all over the world?
Do you know your own history?

Just curious now :)

Hi Crystal!

Wow, if an American thinks that Thanksgiving is a huge national holiday outside of the US (and Canada), they should probably get out and travel a bit, or at least do some reading. (I mean, there several are other countries that have Thanksgiving holidays, but they are on different dates and are not considered as big a holiday). We were taught in school from a young age about the reason we have Thanksgiving in the U.S. Knowing its origins, I'm not sure why anyone would think it would apply to other countries.

Although, I have to say...I have lived in countries where some of the restaurants did put on an American Thanksgiving turkey dinner. In China we always had a lot of options for Thanksgiving dinner in restaurants, which I thought was strange. And Black Friday sales go on in a lot of countries too.

I wouldn't have thought you not to know hihi. You're a travelled American. And you're correct, many Americanisms make it to other countries over time as there's money to be made from it. Like Black Friday, Valentine's Day etc. Valentine's is a funny one though as that is European in origin. Yet, over here in The Netherland they cannot get it to really catch on at all.
Black Friday is increasing since a few years only. I still don't know when that is and to be honest, I find it very annoying as my mailbox explodes with Black Friday related shizzel, hahaha.
Also not surprised the Chinese put turkey dinners on the menu. They're a traders people and if there are enough who want to do the American thing, and they can thus make money out of it, they will just go for it.

But glad to hear the origins are taught in the US! I must say I was also quite shocked that the woman apparently didn't know what the true meaning of it is.

As far as I know the Pilgrim fathers landed on the Soil and had a huge celebration, and everyone was invited .. especially the Natives .
They closed their eyes to say grace , before the meal , and when they opened their eyes ... their land was gone and the rest is history ... ha ha !!!

Thought it was the other way round? It was the Natives, who celebrated the end of the summer and the fruits and crops of their lands? And then the Pilgrims joining in? Well, the latter brought rum and the rest is history ...

I wouldn't be surprised if it was the other way around , with same result .
Before the white man all the natives did was fish , hunt and come home to have sex with their wives . The women stayed home and took care of the house ... nice peaceful life ...
and the white man thought they could improve on that .... and the rest is history ha ha !!

There are millions of Americans who; can't name the three branches of our government, read a map, or chew gum and walk at the same time. And millions more who believe in all kinds of conspiracy theories. It doesn't surprise me a bit that some don't know the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday.

It's the one special day of the year,
where more alcohol is consumed in the
U.S., than any other day.

The Natives, as a fact, lived in harmony with nature. Only hunted and fished to feed their family. But never for profit. The white men seen some business ... and the rest is history. Yeow !!!

Yep, this. And they took care of the land, looked after plants, animals etc. They were one with the land and all sacred & power places were tended to and otherwise left in piece.
Then white man came and filled it up with their houses, roads, industry and whatnot... but yeah, that's history.
Sad to think it all got ruined while at some point in time white man lived the same way, in sync with the land and nature.

Really? I thought it was about family dinner, hihi. So it's a booze feast instead.

You do have a way of saying thing, haha.

I know about what Thanksgiving means in my country.

Not quite.
Many tribes were at war with each other,
long before the first European colonists
arrived. The Lakota vs. The Apache nations
was such a squabble. During this war,
the Lakota peoples actually chased the Apache peoples, all the way from the
Dakotas, to Arizona.

Many tribes, also engaged in enslaving
vanquished foes. Or, outright genocide.

And... The natives did have a trade system.
Profit! While they didn't have monetary
currency as you and I know it. They did
have an ingenious bartering system.

As with any peoples, there is no cookie
cutter version.

Upon European arrival to the New World,
there were indeed, many advanced native
communities. Houses, farms, towns, and
native trading centers.

And rather than "living in harmony" with "nature" they exploited it just as any other human tribes did. They just didn't have the technology to do it as efficiently and totally as the "Europeans" were learning to do.

They weren't a bunch of idiots, they had a well-developed way of living, farming, healing, etc. and they had all the technology that was required. They didn't overhunt, overgrow, overfish etc. as they respected the land and plant and animal life. They knew how delicate and important the balance of nature is and respected that.
They were clean and healthy, bathed, and as such didn't have many diseases that roamed across Europe, killing thousands.

It is white man that trashed everything worldwide, not the people that lived there prior to their arrival.
They brought their diseases with them, even deliberately caused diabetes among the olden people by given them loads of sugar.
White man stank as they weren't healthy and clean, thinking that bathing more than once a year would kill them.

White man's greed has spread across the planet like a disease. Rainforests -the lungs of our world- have and are being trashed, oceans and air polluted, and the 455 nuclear plants -with more to come- are enough to ruin our planet 100 times over.
And yet most white man still hasn't learnt to respect the planet that is our home. We still take what we can without thinking about the long-term consequences.

Once there were some 30 million bison in America. White man came, almost killing the whole lot for money. Greed. There's a photo of a proud hunter in front a meters high pile of bison skulls. Disgusting!
Now there are barely 30.000 wild bison left...

It's white man's patriarchal system that came in the guise of Christianity that has wreaked havoc all over the world.
Fact we had superior weapons to get away with it doesn't mean we had superior lifestyles or superior brains. It's the other way round and it's taken us a couple thousands years to begin to realise that our way of life isn't too smart.
Our own white man's legacy is now upon us.

"Native Americans" and "Europeans" where about equal in "technology" when "whites" first settled in the Americas, with the exceptions of horses and rudimentary firearms. It is the use of technology, particularly products of the industrial revolution, which "Natives" were mostly deprived of, combined with the growing population of "whites" and the declining population, and exploitation of "natives", that caused, and continue to cause, the problems you speak of. Race and religious beliefs have nothing to do with it.

The Natives weren't deprived of anything as they had everything they needed to live a good life.
Their population wouldn't have declined if white man hadn't arrived. White man wiped out thousands, annihilated entire tribes out of greed, shipped of entire tribes to Jamaica etc. as slaves to rid themselves of them, and moved the remaining natives to areas white man didn't need themselves.
The only reason white man got away with this is the fact they had firearms.

If it wasn't for the kindness and good heartedness of the natives white man wouldn't even have survived. If they had known that there were such nasty brutal people on the planet that would go to such lengths out of greed they likely would have killed the first white dude that set foot on their homeland. That sure would've been better for them. And for the planet.

But history is what it is, we can't change the horrors of the past anymore. Personally I feel it's good to realise what we've done. And not just in America but everywhere we -white man- went.

"Native Americans" were basically living in the stone age when Europeans arrived. They "lived with nature" because they had to. Not because they wanted to. The idea that they wanted to live that way is a romantic myth. Do you really think that if the Sioux, the Apaches, the Incas, or the Aztecs, had discovered how to smelt and forge iron and steel, or build a steam engine, they would have said, "naaaw we don't need that".? "Natives" were mostly deprived of these technologies by Europeans who didn't allow "Natives" to develop them. However that doesn't mean "Natives" were stupid. They readily adapted to "European" tech when they could. For example, plains tribes within a few generations easily adapted to use of horses and firearms to become what many would call "The best light cavalry in the world" at the time.

Did that same American think you (and everyone else) celebrate July 4th as a national holiday as well? lol


It's a Holiday because the US government in the late 1800s said let's have a day off... Let's make it the last Thursday in November...
Yes the idea started with Pilgrims landing in the Americas and native Americans sharing a harvest.