Author Topic: Happy Thanks what ? (Read 1543 times)

straffo · « **on:** November 23, 2000, 09:28:00 AM »

I wish you an happy Thanksgiving ...

But I was speaking with some french friend of mine and we have no clue on what Thanksgiving is about (except mass murder of Turkey

)

Can one of you US guy give me the origin of this célébration ?

Dowding · « **Reply #1 on:** November 23, 2000, 09:31:00 AM »

A 'Christmas before Christmas' is how I've always seen it.

I think we should have a similar holiday called 'British Empire Day' where we celebrate all the different foods we nicked from around the world.

StSanta · « **Reply #2 on:** November 23, 2000, 09:58:00 AM »

It's something about how some indians saved som,e white dudes, and to pay them back, the friends of the white dudes occupied idian land and killed off drones of um.

Either that or something weird like family values.

------------------
StSanta
9./JG 54 "Grünherz"
while(!bishRookQueue.isEmpty() && loggedOn()){
30mmDeathDIEDIEDIE(bishRookQueue.removeFront());
System.out.println("LW pilots are superior");
myPlane.performVictoryRoll();
}

AKDejaVu · « **Reply #3 on:** November 23, 2000, 11:11:00 AM »

Thanksgiving is much more difficult to explain than.. let's say... the 4th of July

AKDejaVu

easymo · « **Reply #4 on:** November 23, 2000, 11:41:00 AM »

Thanksgiving.

Early Americans were so happy about escaping the rotting decay, known as Europe. That they threw a party.

Kieren · « **Reply #5 on:** November 23, 2000, 01:31:00 PM »

I am quickly becoming an easymo fan.

Dowding · « **Reply #6 on:** November 23, 2000, 04:55:00 PM »

Quote

Early Americans were so happy about escaping the rotting decay, known as Europe.

And lived happily ever after in a peaceful and tolerant utopia after that?

StSanta · « **Reply #7 on:** November 23, 2000, 06:08:00 PM »

easymo, you mean European rejects who couldn't hack it at home and had to leave?

------------------
StSanta
9./JG 54 "Grünherz"
while(!bishRookQueue.isEmpty() && loggedOn()){
30mmDeathDIEDIEDIE(bishRookQueue.removeFront());
System.out.println("LW pilots are superior");
myPlane.performVictoryRoll();
}

easymo · « **Reply #8 on:** November 23, 2000, 08:20:00 PM »

Considering the perils involved in an Atlantic crossing, at that time, not to mention the odds of surviving the first winter. Id would have to say, the ones with no balls stayed behind.

[This message has been edited by easymo (edited 11-23-2000).]

Toad · « **Reply #9 on:** November 23, 2000, 08:22:00 PM »

Well, Dowding, there's still a h*ll of a lot more people immigrating than emigrating. Can't be too awful bad.

Santa, seems those rejects turned out OK after all. You guys keep telling us we run the world!

Snoopi · « **Reply #10 on:** November 24, 2000, 12:27:00 AM »

U.S. Thanksgiving as I understand it.....

People who got sucked in by advertising, or because their religion was not liked, left Europe in leaky, cold, small boats.

Many died on the way there.

They arrived in America and discovered that it gets cold there. Duh.

Instead of going home and dying in route,
they chose to stay.

The natives helped them to grow local crops and taught them to survive.
After the bountiful harvest they had a big party to celebrate.

Later the settlers took the native land in a quest for more farmland and killed most of the natives.

Or something like that.

In the U.K. and Canada (maybe others), where thanksgiving is held close to Arbor D in the U.S., it's just a farm harvest celebration tradition, pure and simple.

Regards,
Snoopi

[This message has been edited by Snoopi (edited 11-24-2000).]

Sparks · « **Reply #11 on:** November 24, 2000, 03:50:00 AM »

I used to live near where the first settlers arrived (Outer Banks of North Carolina) and believe me they needed to give thanks for surviving there before it was developed - swamp, a few alligators, snakes and mosquitoes the size of Spitfires.!!

Dowding - it's like the fens but a lot hotter and full of things that bite

I liked it though

- amazing what 300yrs can do ....

straffo · « **Reply #12 on:** November 24, 2000, 04:22:00 AM »

Will dig a little on the Net to get the info
Thank anyway all

straffo · « **Reply #13 on:** November 24, 2000, 04:36:00 AM »

I'm just a little stupid ...
http://www.thanksgiving.org/

Dowding · « **Reply #14 on:** November 24, 2000, 06:33:00 AM »

Toad - my point isn't that America is god-awful (like anywhere else it has its good and bad points

), just that (some) of those settlers went to America on the back of prejudice in Europe, but then exercised the same prejudice (and then genoside) that they were trying to escape.

If you were black or a native, history tells us that America could hardly be called the 'land of the free' and was indeed as bad as Europe. It is also historically true to say that 'coloured' people were second class citizens well into this century, something that was endorsed by the institutions of the day.

Although I'm sure it's easier to see things as black and white, history is rarely that clear cut. Many of those sainted settlers were as bad as their European contemporaries. To sanctify those early colonists and demonise the continent they came from is a little historically dubious.

Also, not sure on this, but wasn't there an English settlement at Jamestown years before the Pilgrim Fathers arrived? I was reading how it was sabotaged by Spanish 'spies' - there was lots of unexplained sickness and death, which has recently been traced to certain Spanish sympathisers.

But I'm sure you know all this already.