This week is Thanksgiving, at least here in the US. It’s a pretty controversial holiday these days, at least as I understand it. I would like to share my thoughts on the subject, and boy are they complicated thoughts.
From my understanding, which admittedly could be very flawed due to where I got my knowledge (school and tumblr, mainly), Thanksgiving has two main roots: 1) celebration of the presumably successful harvest of that year (rather like the Jewish holiday of Sukkot), and B) celebration of our arrival in this country, which means celebrating taking it over from the Native Americans. The controversy in this is quite obviously part B. Many people feel that in celebrating Thanksgiving, we are either blithely disregarding the impact of our arrival on the Native Americans (what can be seen as a genocide), or we are out and out celebrating it. To me, it is completely wrong to even think about celebrating a genocide, especially coming from the perspective of a people who lost six million to a similar genocide (known as the Shoah, or Holocaust).
While I think that it is wrong to celebrate Thanksgiving from that viewpoint, I don’t think the holiday should be abolished altogether, or really at all. I think that as long as the holiday is taken away from its origins and context, it’s okay to enjoy it. After all, in my life and my family, Thanksgiving is used as a way to evaluate what we have been given in life, and to express our thanks for all that we have to fortune to have and experience. Sure, we throw in some turkeys here and there, but really it’s about appreciating family. The reason I love Thanksgiving time is that most years (not this one due to extenuating weather circumstances), it’s when I get to see all my family, all together, having fun and being friendly like a family should.
Now, I’m not saying we should ignore the terrible parts of the origin of this holiday. In fact, I believe that it is important to know about all the horrors of our past, and to teach about them to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself, just as we do with Passover. People need to be educated about the wrongs in our history. But since this holiday is about giving thanks, I feel that it’s okay to do both, especially because you are then giving thanks for what you have learned. I think that it is equally as important to save a day out of the year to say thank you and reflect as it is to have a day of commemoration; too many people go through life taking advantage of what they have. And there can still be a day of commemoration for all that the Native American people have lost, there should be. That, however, is a topic for another day, as it goes along with all the other holidays I think this world needs or doesn’t need.
All in all, I think that it’s important to remember that Thanksgiving is a holiday for just that: giving thanks. I don’t often take things at face value, but in this case I do, in order to continue to give value to this traditional holiday. I know that there are many problems with the holiday as a whole, I’m not ignoring that, but I feel that it’s okay to celebrate as long as you are celebrating the right things, and acknowledging the bad parts. To me, this day is about showing people the good before them, and that is something worth celebrating.
Well, that’s about it for today. Feel free to leave me a comment with your opinion, or start up a discussion with me if you disagree.
Don’t Forget To Be Awesome,
Ilana
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