John Richardson
G Block
The Truth About Thanksgiving
After Halloween has ended, and all the candy is gone, the next thing everyone starts to think about is Thanksgiving. What’s not to love about Thanksgiving? The warm decorations like a cornucopia with corn and other foods spilling from it, or the turkeys, ranging from the most detailed sculptures to the kind you can make from your handprint. It is believed by many that these symbols of Thanksgiving like the turkey, the pilgrims, and Native Americans originated from the first Thanksgiving. However, much of the Thanksgiving story that people believe today may not have actually happened, or at least in the way it's being told.
Most people believe that the first Thanksgiving happened in 1621 after the Pilgrims sailed over on the Mayflower and had a successful harvest. One can imagine the Native Americans and the Pilgrims sitting around a table eating turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, but the truth is, this story has many inaccuracies. The first one that should be addressed is that the Pilgrims didn’t actually call themselves Pilgrims. They were known as Separatists. The Second inaccuracy is that the Native Americans might not have actually been invited to the first Thanksgiving. The third is that there is no evidence that turkey was served and they didn’t have the ovens to make pumpkin pie. Finally, what we call the first Thanksgiving, wasn’t really the first Thanksgiving. It was very common in Native American culture to give thanks after a harvest that ended in success.
Thanksgiving started to be made official around the time of the civil war. Hale stands out as one who was pushing Congress to make the fourth Thursday of November a holiday to give thanks. Hale wrote many letters to Congress regarding her wishes and by 1854, 30 states and US territories had jumped on board by celebrating this holiday, but it was not official yet. Finally Lincoln agreed to make Thanksgiving a national holiday because he thought it might help heal some of the wounds created by the civil war.
One might ask themselves how all the misinformation about the “first” Thanksgiving came to be. Part of the blame is on the school textbooks. They did not provide a clear and accurate view of this holiday, but what really caused misinformation to spread was major food companies and the media. Adds were being created to cause people to associate Thanksgiving with certain foods. They also “implied” that many of these foods existed and were present at the first Thanksgiving when they weren't actually there. Even though these adds twisting the truth, they cause foods like turkey and cranberry sauce to sell around Thanksgiving time. Despite all the inaccuracies, the Thanksgiving holiday was created to give thanks and it has been a huge success in that regard.
https://shannonselin.com/2016/11/thanksgiving-1800s/
G Block
The Truth About Thanksgiving
After Halloween has ended, and all the candy is gone, the next thing everyone starts to think about is Thanksgiving. What’s not to love about Thanksgiving? The warm decorations like a cornucopia with corn and other foods spilling from it, or the turkeys, ranging from the most detailed sculptures to the kind you can make from your handprint. It is believed by many that these symbols of Thanksgiving like the turkey, the pilgrims, and Native Americans originated from the first Thanksgiving. However, much of the Thanksgiving story that people believe today may not have actually happened, or at least in the way it's being told. Most people believe that the first Thanksgiving happened in 1621 after the Pilgrims sailed over on the Mayflower and had a successful harvest. One can imagine the Native Americans and the Pilgrims sitting around a table eating turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, but the truth is, this story has many inaccuracies. The first one that should be addressed is that the Pilgrims didn’t actually call themselves Pilgrims. They were known as Separatists. The Second inaccuracy is that the Native Americans might not have actually been invited to the first Thanksgiving. The third is that there is no evidence that turkey was served and they didn’t have the ovens to make pumpkin pie. Finally, what we call the first Thanksgiving, wasn’t really the first Thanksgiving. It was very common in Native American culture to give thanks after a harvest that ended in success.
Thanksgiving started to be made official around the time of the civil war. Hale stands out as one who was pushing Congress to make the fourth Thursday of November a holiday to give thanks. Hale wrote many letters to Congress regarding her wishes and by 1854, 30 states and US territories had jumped on board by celebrating this holiday, but it was not official yet. Finally Lincoln agreed to make Thanksgiving a national holiday because he thought it might help heal some of the wounds created by the civil war.
One might ask themselves how all the misinformation about the “first” Thanksgiving came to be. Part of the blame is on the school textbooks. They did not provide a clear and accurate view of this holiday, but what really caused misinformation to spread was major food companies and the media. Adds were being created to cause people to associate Thanksgiving with certain foods. They also “implied” that many of these foods existed and were present at the first Thanksgiving when they weren't actually there. Even though these adds twisting the truth, they cause foods like turkey and cranberry sauce to sell around Thanksgiving time. Despite all the inaccuracies, the Thanksgiving holiday was created to give thanks and it has been a huge success in that regard.
https://shannonselin.com/2016/11/thanksgiving-1800s/
