Witch Willows WanderingsAre You Going to Eat Yourself Retarded?
November 22nd 2006 15:15
So tomorrow is Thanksgiving. So what does Thanksgiving mean and how do different religions celebrate? Well, Thanksgiving is mainly a US custom, however, there are so many different ethnicities in the US how do they all celebrate? Or do they celebrate at all? And did you know that Canada has a Thanksgiving Day, but it is the 2nd Monday in October?
It is a little difficult to find out how and/or if different cultures celebrate Thanksgiving. According to a blog I did earlier, there are Interfaith celebrations taking place where people of all religions get together and just give thanks for all they have. Isn’t that really what Thanksgiving is about now? But what was Thanksgiving really about originally? Well, the funny thing is that Thanksgiving was really a way of giving “thanks” to God for the harvest…sound familiar? Yes, this is what Samhain partially celebrated, but let’s not back track.
What else was Thanksgiving about? Well according to the History Channel, the way we perceive the Thanksgiving dinner and celebration is not exactly accurate. It is questionable if they actually cooked turkey, but perhaps duck and goose. They probably also had seafood. Mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie? Not likely, especially since they didn’t have an abundance of flour and butter to make the pie crust. What other myths are there to bust about the Thanksgiving tradition? For those of you that did not see the History channel special, let me help you out…it’s rather interesting.
-The first Thanksgiving was in 1621, but was not repeated yearly like it is now, nor was it on the 4th Thursday of November. It was actually sometime between September 21st and November 11th. Also, believe it or not, it was 3 DAYS, not just one. The colonists of Plymouth were very religious so they wanted to give thanks to God for the harvest and really for everything else as well. It was a big celebration with lots of prayers.
-President Roosevelt was the one that officially made Thanksgiving the 4the Thursday of November way back in 1939. Quite a long way from the original Thanksgiving in 1621 huh? Well, you know our government likes to drag their feet on things at times.
-Pilgrims did not always wear only black and white, nor did they wear buckles on their hats.
-So what did they actually eat besides the possible duck or goose? Let’s see: lobster, seal (yes, SEAL), swan, deer, fish, Eagle (so that’s what happened to the Eagle! Ha Ha), clams, eel, possibly wild turkey (no, not the alcohol), Indian corn, radishes, lettuce, pumpkin (just not in pies), peas, beans, onions, carrots, grapes, plums, walnuts, chestnuts, acorns, leeks, parsnips, and wheat flour. They didn’t have a lot of different vegetables available, so it was mostly meat. They didn’t really have sugar and flour, just what they brought with them, so no yummy pies, cakes, or breads.
-So what did they not have that we do have? Ham (they had pigs, but there is no evidence of eating them for Thanksgiving), potatoes and sweet potatoes, corn on the cob (it was dried and made into Indian corn instead), cranberry sauce (they had cranberries, just no sugar), pumpkin pie (instead they had stewed pumpkin), eggs (they had chickens, but nobody knows how many were left by then so they probably didn’t have many eggs, if any), milk (yah right. They couldn’t bring cows with them on the Mayflower. It was the Ark! They had to use goats for any milk or cheese.)
-What about the Indians? No, they did not sit at a big table like everyone thinks. Nobody can say for sure that they were actually invited in the first place. Some think the Indians just showed up. And they vastly outnumber the pilgrims.
So where does that leave us today? Today I think Thanksgiving is about a couple of things, and no the harvest is not one of them. Thanksgiving is about being thankful for where you live, who you are, your family, and what you have. Thanksgiving is also about parades, getting ready for black Friday, eating until you can’t move and you fall into a tryptophan coma, and watching sports. Speaking of the tryptophan coma, here is a funny fact: with all of the yummy food for Thanksgiving, did you know that the average person will eat OVER 4500 calories in just ONE meal? Yikes.
So, I generally go with the “regular” Thanksgiving celebration. Family and friends, lots of food, the kids running amuck, watching the Macy’s parade, looking through the tons of ads in the newspaper, and planning on not sleeping that night in order to get up and go shopping the next morning. But what about people that have come to the US from different countries or are from a different heritage? How do they celebrate? Hopefully, in the least they do it by giving thanks for what they have, such as their freedom, and they spend the day like the rest of us.
So here’s your chance. If you are from a different country or heritage and celebrate Thanksgiving differently, what do you do? Or, do you even celebrate at all? Let’s all have a big Thanksgiving and share in the celebration together by sharing how we celebrate. Just ad your comment and let your voice be heard!
Happy Thanksgiving, and try not to eat yourself retarded. I know, for some the retarded factor is already present, but let’s try.
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And, I will try not to eat myself koo koo.