It’s Thanksgiving Eve 2022, and the typical sentiments and memes are flying around social media about the holiday. What are you eating? Who’s traveling? And let’s not forget the early Black Friday ads. But also floating around rather faintly are conscious people that take issue with what this holiday represents and urge people not to partake.
Outside of Christmas, Thanksgiving is the biggest holiday of the year and has become the American way of life staple. An event with simple beginnings later marred with terrorism and egoic pride, our history books give a watered-down account of the origins of Thanksgiving and the intent of its celebration. Spiritually, Americans collectively participate in a ritual and do not even know; others do know but do not care. Shining a light on the truth, this post discusses the cultural beginnings of giving thanks, piecing together the facts of how Thanksgiving originated and what it has morphed into since its establishment in 1621. I end with how I celebrate this time of year, creating my traditions.
Cosmic Beginnings
Ancient and Indigenous cultures worldwide have analyzed the Earth and the sky for direction on how to proceed with daily living and to make predictions on what may come. The time we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday is no exception. The Sun is the most dominating entity Earth relies on for survival, vital for growing crops. The Autumn Equinox, specifically in the northern hemisphere, marks when the Sun begins its descent from the equator down to the southern hemisphere. This produces shorter daylight times for the northern hemisphere, with the Equinox starting anywhere between 22 – 24 September.
This astrological event signals harvest, a time to bring in the growing season’s bounty and store food for the cooler months. The first full moon after the Autumn Equinox is the Corn or Harvest Moon. Additionally, metaphysically from the end of October to the Winter Solstice, this is also the time of year when the “veil between worlds” is the thinnest. This means that communication with the spirit world is most effortless during this time of year—an ideal time for ancestral veneration, particularly in November.
I say all this to show how science and metaphysics play into humans’ development of physical and spiritual traditions. Harvest time is a time to show gratitude, while the heavily spiritual time in Autumn is a time to cultivate the spirit. With the introduction of the Thanksgiving holiday, both of these ideas have been hijacked and continue to be present.
Indigenous and native people of North America typically gave thanks for their bounty throughout the year and nurtured nature as a natural part of their culture – a way of life. Viewing themselves as one with nature and the land, proclaiming a time of thanks was unnecessary. Indigenous and native people live in a consistent state of thankfulness and harmony with nature, with typical celebrations of gratitude during the Corn or Harvest Moon and Hunters Moon of September and October, respectively, preparing for the Winter to come.
Across the Atlantic, however, the British brought harvest customs to America. These celebrations and feasts traditionally took place with various pagan cultures and religions in the northern hemisphere, giving thanks to God for the bounty of the harvest. At that time, Pilgrims celebrated days of thanksgiving separate from the harvest celebration as part of their religion reserved for days of prayer, not feasting, and brought those ideas over to North America. These harvest celebrations, combined with days of prayer, became a model for the American Thanksgiving holiday to come.
A Complicated History
In 1621 Pilgrim colonists and Wampanoag natives shared an Autumn harvest feast in September, typically known as the “first Thanksgiving” meal. However, based on historical data, the meal was unimpressive, and there is no evidence of natives being invited. The truth of this meeting is that the Pilgrims and Wampanoag were negotiating a land deal, not necessarily giving the natives an invite to join in the festivities. Tensions already existed between the colonists and the natives, and data continues to surface on how interactions were not as amicable as they were portrayed in school history books.
Following the 1621 event, conflicts arose between the colonists and the natives. “Years after 1621, the colonists proclaimed days of thanksgiving for victories over tribal people, including one for the burning of the Pequot fort in 1637 and the victory over Massasoit’s son Philip in 1676” (Permenter, n.d.). In 1637, the Pequot Tribe gathered for their annual Green Corn Dance in the area now known as Groton, Connecticut. English and Dutch mercenaries invaded the celebration, murdering a massive number of the Pequot tribe. The next day, the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared “a day of Thanksgiving, thanking God that they had eliminated over 700 men, women, and children” (United Native America, n.d.).
Thanksgiving celebrations that followed were a mix of the 1621 and 1637 events. Celebrated sporadically, there are limited historical records of what took place during these celebrations, who was in attendance, or what foods were prepared.
The details of the Pequot event and declaration are listed in these source documents: Documents of Holland, 13 Volume Colonial Documentary History, letters, and reports from colonial officials to their superiors and the King in England, and the private papers of Sir William Johnson, British Indian agent for the New York colony for 30 years. Researched by William B. Newell (Penobscot Tribe) Former University of Connecticut Anthropology Department Chairman.
In 1789 President George Washington proclaimed a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer” devoted to “the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be” (Thanksgiving & CO, n.d.). Later in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War, declared Thanksgiving a federal holiday at the end of November, a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens” (Thanksgiving & CO, n.d.). Both presidents proclaimed Thanksgiving as a commemoration of victory in times of battle or overcoming adversity, with all praises to the Christian God.
In 1920, school systems across America began populating textbooks with the part truth, part myth feel-good story of the “first Thanksgiving” of 1621 in Plymouth while glossing over the events of 1637 and 1676 and centuries of persecution and terrorism against the Indigenous and native inhabitants of North America. Americans, combined with the president’s proclamations, began celebrating and feasting on Thanksgiving. The past’s inconsistencies continue to be unraveled, bringing truth to the masses.
Modern Times
Thanks to marketing, Thanksgiving has become another vehicle to stimulate the economy by driving consumerism. Americans across the country use this time to primarily be gluttonous with excessive feasting and retail shopping. Any religious sentiment or spiritual connection to the holiday has been lost. All this collective energy feeds the spirit of the colonizer’s original intent for Thanksgiving, the celebration of victory over the enemy – the Indigenous and native people of North America. Most Americans do not know the truth about the Thanksgiving holiday, and any attempt to teach the facts of its origins is met with resistance or, worse, nonchalance. Social engineering has conditioned people to ostracize those who do not follow the status quo.
People use the rationale, “it’s a time to spend with family; why change it”? I can understand the nostalgia, familiarity, and pressure behind this sentiment. But why does the government have to dictate when we spend time with our family? The family can agree on another day to fellowship and spend time together, creating our traditions. Also, some people do not even associate with their family until the holidays and “play nice”. How sad is that?
Also, all holidays are designed to drive the system of capitalism, and Thanksgiving is no different. After all, it is the start of the shopping season – Black Friday, HELLO! It’s no coincidence that retailers keep us engaged from Halloween to Christmas. This is the most spiritual time of the year when we should focus on our spiritual journeys and look internally. Capitalism keeps us distracted; I’m rejecting it.
What am I doing with the Thanksgiving holiday granted to us by the government? Meditation and spiritual studies, that’s about it. I will not partake in the ritual of Thanksgiving that continues to reinforce the victory and conquering of the Indigenous and native people of North America, my ancestors—celebrating when they tell you to support that ugly history. Instead, I am electing to celebrate the natural harvest season on days and at times of my choosing.
I’ll likely begin celebrating in October during the Hunter Full Moon. This will be my holiday, where we will feast modestly, celebrate life, family, and ancestors, and express gratitude for all we’ve been blessed. I know this falls more in line with what my indigenous ancestors did than this whitewashed Thanksgiving holiday we celebrate. What do I love about this time of year? Cooking the meal for my family, the comforting smells filling up the house and leftovers! It reminds me of cooking with my grandma, and October will be a great time to feast, leading to ancestral celebrations in November. As a spiritualist, ancestral reverence is my focus. It just so happens that my departed grandmother’s birthday is October 30th, and my departed brother’s birthday is December 6th, wonderful days for opening and closing the ancestral season. I do not need the government to designate a day for me to give thanks or gather with family.
Conclusion
The Ancestors who live within us are guiding us to remember who we were before colonization. Look to the sky, feel the seasons, erase the indoctrination, and do what resonates with you. We are returning to our roots and connecting with our higher selves; our traditions should mirror that. More importantly, we must become creative and comfortable and assert our will to develop unique traditions for ourselves and our families. Dare to be original! We must undo what the colonizers did in our thoughts and ways of life.
Resources:
Elizabeth Pleck. (1999). The Making of the Domestic Occasion: The History of Thanksgiving in the United States. Journal of Social History, (4), 773. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.umuc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.3789891&site=eds-live&scope=site.
History (n.d.). Fall Equinox. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/topics/natural-disasters-and-environment/fall-equinox.
History (2018). Thanksgiving 2018. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/history-of-thanksgiving.
Permenter, R (n.d.). The History of the U.S. Thanksgiving Holiday: The Wampanoags and Patuxets. Slippery Rock University. Retrieved from http://www.westminster.edu/staff/brennie/images/The%20History%20of%20Thanksgiving_1.pdf.
Scholastic (n.d.). The First Thanksgiving. Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/feast/.
Thanksgiving & CO (n.d.). Which U.S. president made Thanksgiving a national holiday? Retrieved from https://staging.thanksgiving.com/celebrate/thanksgiving/which-u-s-president-made-thanksgiving-a-national-holiday/ .
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (n.d.). Autumnal equinox. Astronomy. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/science/autumnal-equinox.
Tousignant, M (2018). That now-famous Plymouth gathering didn’t jump-start Thanksgiving. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/that-now-famous-plymouth-gathering-didnt-jump-start-thanksgiving/2018/11/20/893f09a6-e9c2-11e8-bbdb-72fdbf9d4fed_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.75b37e19f873.
United Native America (n.d.). First official document proclaiming “THANKSGIVING” As we know it today came after the event below. Retrieved from http://www.unitednativeamerica.com/bureau/bwa_2.html.
Wilson, J (2009). Cooking the History Books: The Thanksgiving Massacre. Republic of Lakotah, Retrieved from http://www.republicoflakotah.com/2009/cooking-the-history-books-the-thanksgiving-massacre/.