Behind The Curtain On T-Day

Ant writes "MSN Encarta has Columnist Martha Brockenbrough's article on the myths of this American holiday. From the article: 'A lot of what we know to be true about Thanksgiving really isn't. Determining exactly what did happen is difficult. For starters, we don't even know for certain if the Pilgrims served turkey, although it's a strong possibility.'" Additionally, maotx writes "Contrary to popular belief, turkey does not make you sleepy. While purified tryptophan is a mild sleep-inducing agent, there is not enough in turkey to have a sedative affect. And on top of that, turkey isn't even unusually high in tryptophan compared to other foods, such as beef or soybeans. So for those of us enjoying turkey today, bring on the turkey and have a Happy Thanksgiving!"

Comments

Tell me...

[Dystopian Rebel]

What do the North American Indians celebrate?

Re:Tell me...

[oxi]

Good point.

Native people I know don't "celebrate" this country's history as is encompassed in the myth of "Thanksgiving" or it's twin, Columbus Day. They instead mourn for those whose lives were taken so long ago. The story as has been told in school rooms for decades is fallacy that doesn't hold water. It glosses over the horrors that people of the First Nations were subjected to in the Americas. By just focusing on Tisquantum (or Squanto) you get a glipse of what hundreds of thousands of more people would eventually be subjected to. A good television series that goes in depth on what the Wampanoag Nation experianced is "500 Nations", available on DVD at the usual places.

It would great if the geek brethren that assembled here on /. would take it upon themselves to dig beyond the official history and into reality's sad truths with as much zeal as we use in picking apart the latest FUD coming from the Micro$oft.

More on Tisquantum:
http://members.aol.com/calebj/squanto.html

And here's a more personal account of how one Native person spends the day with her family:
http://www.purewatergazette.net/nativeamericanthan ksgiving.htm

Re:Tell me...

[Seumas]

You know, I don't particularly care to continue the "columbus" myth whatsoever, but at the same time . . . What the fuck do you want from me? It's not like this is the only country that was ever conquered or explored or founded or taken by force or anything else. Not the first and not the last.

Frankly, I'm tired of people trying to lay some trip on me because I'm a "white male". What the fuck did I have to do with buttraping the natives on this country and taking their land? Hey - I'm real sorry about how it all went down, but my family was from Russia and Germany - not Spain - and they only came over within the last century. And I'm pretty fucking sure they weren't royalty or had anything to do with or control to change what happened on this continent.

Should all the people who have migrated to Australia in the last decade be responsible for what Britain did to the aboriginies in the last century or two?

On the other hand, it does seem silly to celebrate. But isn't that the Christian way? Fuck someone over, make a holiday for it or take their holiday and make it their own.. voila. Kinda like the whole pagans and Christmas thing. Or the pagans and easter thing.

Interestingly enough, it does still seem to be what is tought in school, which is fairly amazing.

Re:The first broken myth...

[Doctor Crumb]

The first Canadian Thanksgiving was celebrated on April 15, 1872 in thanks for the recovery of the future King Edward VII from a serious illness. The next Thanksgiving didn't occur until 1879 when it was celebrated on a Thursday in November.

As for it being celebrated in October, it has more to do with Canada having a shorter growing season and that celebrating the harvest makes more sense near the end of harvest season in october. The holiday did bounce around a lot, but I don't think that Armistice day was the sole reason for the move to october.

http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/jfa-ha/action _e.cfm

another critical article

[Doviende]

"Some aspects of the conventional story are true enough. But it's also true that by 1637 Massachusetts Gov. John Winthrop was proclaiming a thanksgiving for the successful massacre of hundreds of Pequot Indian men, women and children, part of the long and bloody process of opening up additional land to the English invaders."

from Robert Jensen's Give Thanks No More

here's another part of it i found interesting:

Any attempt to complicate this story guarantees hostility from mainstream culture. After raising the barbarism of America's much-revered founding fathers in a lecture, I was once accused of trying to "humble our proud nation" and "undermine young people's faith in our country."

Yes, of course -- that is exactly what I would hope to achieve. We should practice the virtue of humility and avoid the excessive pride that can, when combined with great power, lead to great abuses of power.

-doviende