Happy Turkey Day!

[kallistii]

To all of my fellow Americans, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

To all of my fellow Canadians, We already had our's in October, so a Happy Belated Thanksgiving.

I found a great kids site that explains the difference between the two...so in the interest of education, here are two quotes from the site that explain things so that each side of the 49th Parallel know why the other celebrates this holiday.

US:The First Thanksgiving
Let's go back to the year 1620. A bunch of pilgrims had just come over from England because they were bullied for their strict religious beliefs there and they thought America would give them a chance to start a new life. They landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts on their ship, the Mayflower. Their first year in America really sucked - they couldn't find food and nearly half of the 102 people who first came over were dead by the next fall. But in 1621 things started to look better - they had a huge harvest with a ton of food. To celebrate, they held a huge feast and invited a group of Indians who had helped the Pilgrims get through that first difficult year. It was quite the party - three days of pigging out on venison, various birds, fish, fruit, and vegetables. That was the first Thanksgiving.

http://www.kidzworld.com/site/p1521.htm

CANADA:How It Began
The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving are more closely connected to the traditions of Europe than of the United States. Long before Europeans settled in North America, festivals of thanks and celebrations of harvest took place in Europe in the month of October. The very first Thanksgiving celebration in North America took place in Canada when Martin Frobisher, an explorer from England, arrived in Newfoundland in 1578. He wanted to give thanks for his safe arrival to the New World. That means the first Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated 43 years before the pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts!

http://www.kidzworld.com/site/p2614.htm

Please visit each for more information.

ttyl

Comments

[ravenlaughing.livejournal.com]

Awww.. if only it taught the truth about the first thanksgiving, that it was the Native Americans who invited the Pilgrims because they were starving, having not brought enough grains to last the winter. And it's more likely they had corn, beans, and squahs than turkey & cranberries. Oh well.

[kallisti.livejournal.com]

Actually, I saw an interesting piece on CNN today about the first US Thanksgiving...it seems that the story is even more complicated, and different than that. In the decades before the Pilgrims landed, English ships had plundered the coast of New England, and kidnapping First Nations people for slaves. One of the areas raided was the area we now call Plymouth Rock, and the person we know today as Squanto was kidnapped to be sold as a slave. It took him 20 years before he was able to return to his home villiage. There he found it deserted, his people, all dead, killed by smallpox it is theorized. Needless to say, he was devestated.

The Pilgrims really were not prepared to survive in the area of Plymouth Rock. They lost half their number the first winter. That spring, Sqaunto approached the Pilgrims, who had been praying like mad, as people do during a crisis. They were *sure* their God had sent them an answer to their prayers. Here was a native who walked out of the wilderness, who had the "secrets" of surviving of the land, spoke English, and knew a great deal about England and Europe. They sort of adopted each other, both with needs the other could fill.

But it is really much more complicated than that, of course...check out this page:

http://members.aol.com/calebj/squanto.html

Squanto was very human, and like many things much of our history has become mythology...maybe not accurate, but you gotta admit, the idea of peace and friendship between the First Nations and the European colonists is a good ideal to celebrate, as long as people remember what really happened.

ttyl

[ravenlaughing.livejournal.com]

Oh absolutely, as long as it's not the stereotypical "white people come in and give good things to savages" kinda BS.

[kattale.livejournal.com]

Um... do you mean the first European-based thanksgiving involving whites?

[kallisti.livejournal.com]

Yes, as the First Nations people probably don't call their harvest festivals "Thanksgiving".

ttyl