Happy Thanks what ?

[funked]

It's pretty simple - a day to give thanks to God for all the good things.  When you've just finished harvest and you realize you are set for the coming winter, it was a nice time to say "WOOHOO" and have a little party.

[Toad]

Dowding, don't even start.

Or I'll reply like this.  

Originally posted by Dowding:
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.

Guess it's just hard to take the "Europe" out of the European.  (Image removed from quote.)

Happy Holidays!!

[Igloo]

How did one party become a tradition?

Musta been one heckofva party.

Our Thanksgiving here in Canada is in October.  Why? Dunno.  Kinda dumb thing to celebrate.  White guys killing off the natives and taking their land.

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Squadron Leader, Igloo.
C/O RCAF 411 Squadron - County of York

"Problems cannot be solved with the same awareness that created them" - Albert Einstein[/i]

[Rickenbacker]

Just remember that you may be american in everything else, but when you go to the bathroom, you're a-peein.

 

 

[bloom25]

The general explaination for Thanksgiving is the Indian banquet thing.  Thanksgiving wasn't actually a national holiday until around the 1860s.  (Note: My history book is not around, so I may be totally wrong here, but I think this is true.)  Abraham Lincoln made it a national holiday during the Civil War years as a way to unify the country and boost morale.  The Pilgrim and Indian story is just the reasoning behind it.

(Please feel free to correct me if you find out exactly what the true story is.   )



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bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[AKDejaVu]

A quote from  http://www.thanksgiving.org/2us.html

 

1789 Washington's first proclamation after his inauguration as the nation's first president in 1789 declared November 26, 1789, as a national day of "thanksgiving and prayer."
 
1800s  The annual presidential thanksgiving proclamations ceased for 45 years in the early 1800s.
 
1863  President Abraham Lincoln resumed the tradition in 1863.
 
November
26, 1941 President Roosevelt signed the bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. Because two years out of every seven have five Thursdays in November, some states for the next 15 years celebrated on their own on the last Thursday. Since 1956, the fourth Thursday in November has been observed by every state.

[Eagler]

It's a dedicated day to give thanks for all of our blessings and good fortune.

Something none of us do enough, we'd rather whine and cry for what we don't have..

Eagler

[Dowding]

 

Something none of us do enough, we'd rather whine and cry for what we don't have..

Or run to the nearest lawyer prepared to prostitute themselves by instigating litigation over a 'dangerously hot pickle' [previous thread].

Only in America? For now, maybe, but the way things are going over here...

 

Guess it's just hard to take the "Europe" out of the European.

My sentiments exactly! But, perhaps you mean it's hard to remove the base instincts and the nasty parts of human nature from people? We ain't that different really (although it's comforting to think we are  ).

It ain't un-patriotic to recognise there were/are 'evil' elements in our societies. There is no progress without objective re-appraisal. I'd be the first to say that Europeans have a lot to answer for, and did horrific things in the name of power/territory. Human nature is the same the world over; the differences are exagerated and a little bit of ignorance is involved too. All we can do is avoid those mistakes in future.

Thanks-giving sounds like a great idea, by the way. We don't get enough public holidays in this country.