Since history research is not really my thing, I decided to go easy on myself and provide a couple of links and quotes by others who put in the time “debunking” Thanksgiving “myths.” I put “myths” in quotations because a lot of these weren’t really my idea of myths.The funny thing is that while each of the articles I provide clips from give the appearance of authority on this topic, many of them tend to disagree… it made me giggle. So here are two “myths” as debunked by the authorities of Google University (I claim no responsibility for the validity of these statements).
Myth #1 The Thanksgiving tradition originated at Plymouth Plantation and involved pilgrims and Indians.
From that bastion of accuracy The History Channel:
“The reason that we have so many myths associated with Thanksgiving is that it is an invented tradition. It doesn’t originate in any one event. It is based on the New England puritan Thanksgiving, which is a religious Thanksgiving, and the traditional harvest celebrations of England and New England and maybe other ideas like commemorating the pilgrims. All of these have been gathered together and transformed into something different from the original parts.”– James W. Baker, Senior Historian at Plimoth Plantation
But Rick Shenkman of the History News Network says otherwise:
To see what the first Thanksgiving was like you have to go to: Texas. Texans claim the first Thanksgiving in America actually took place in little San Elizario, a community near El Paso… Then again, you may want to go to Virginia… at the Berkeley Plantation on the James River.
And this from the Christian Science Monitor, reprinted in Urban Legends at About.com:
The true history has been a difficult one to uncover. Staff at Plimoth Plantation, which occupies several acres on the outskirts of the city of Plymouth, just north of Cape Cod, have been in the vanguard of researching the event. But a big obstacle remains: Everything historians know today is based on two passages written by colonists.
In a letter to a friend, dated December 1621, Edward Winslow wrote: “Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week, at which time, among other Recreations, we exercised our Arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some 90 men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted and they went out and killed five Deer, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others.”
They can’t even agree on how to spell Plymouth!
Myth #2 Thanksgiving is religious in origin.
Rick Skenkman splits hairs:
No it wasn’t… if Thanksgiving had been about religion, the Pilgrims never would have invited the Indians to join them. Besides, the Pilgrims would never have tolerated festivities at a true religious event. Indeed, what we think of as Thanksgiving was really a harvest festival. Actual “Thanksgivings” were religious affairs; everybody spent the day praying. Incidentally, these Pilgrim Thanksgivings occurred at different times of the year, not just in November.
But this guy sort of agrees with him:
Hardly. It was a three-day harvest festival that included drinking, gambling, athletic games, and even target shooting with English muskets (which, by the way, was intended as a friendly warning to the Indians that the Pilgrims were prepared to defend themselves.)
We heard what the History Channel’s authority said, but it would appear that the celebration even had religious connotations for the Indians:
“We as native people [traditionally] have thanksgivings as a daily, ongoing thing,” says Linda Coombs, associate director of the Wampanoag program at Plimoth Plantation. “Every time anybody went hunting or fishing or picked a plant, they would offer a prayer or acknowledgment.”
Regardless, have fun eating turkey, participating in road rage to get to your destination, fighting with your family, sharing laughs with your family, sleeping in front of the TV, or doing whatever your kith and kin do to celebrate. Enjoy!
