The first Thanksgiving took place in the fall of 1621 when the Pilgrims, who had suffered a brutal first winter in America, decided to give thanks for the bountiful harvest of the year that followed their landing at Plymouth Rock.
Their Thanksgiving, while not officially titled, was a three-day feast meant to thank God for giving them a plentiful growing season. It was not until President Lincoln that Thanksgiving was officially declared and set as the last Thursday in November.
While pondering this curious holiday about a week ago, I asked myself, since Thanksgiving has become so synonymous with a long weekend and tons of food, is it possible that people really know who (or what) we “thank” on Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is one of the biggest holidays of the year, so it’s logical that people would know what they were celebrating, right?
Wrong. After conducting a random survey of 25 students in the Breezeway, not even one was able to definitively state whom or what the country thanks on Thanksgiving. Most people – 11 out of 25 – said that Thanksgiving is America’s way of thanking the Native Americans.
While arguably a reasonable guess, these people clearly don’t understand what the colonists actually did to the Native Americans. Let’s just say that the genocide committed against them makes the war in Iraq look like an episode of Mr. Rogers. But, I digress.
Other wrong answers included, “George Washington,” “beating the British,” “Martin Luther King” and, my personal favorite, “The Kaballah” (no, I’m not kidding).
Senior philosophy major Gabe Schnirman says, “I think Thanksgiving is just another excuse for already fat Americans to sit on their asses and get fatter.”
Six of those polled answered, “God,” and were, in fact, correct though they couldn’t identify what we were thanking him for.
So, with this in mind, remember when you sit down to indulge in your mother’s oh-so-appetizing deep fried turkey (with all of its famous trimmings) that you are actually thanking God on behalf of the Pilgrims for their abundant harvest of 1621. The Kaballah, unfortunately, had nothing to do with it.
