Happy Thanksgiving....
First off, Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I hope you enjoy the day gobbling down the big bird itself. I just came from Tukayo's blog and she has an interesting entry about this very famous celebration here in the US - that some people/families make a 'big show' out of this day then spend the rest of the year ignoring each other. Kinda' hyprocritical, isn't it?
Somehow I'm glad that we don't do the family rounds anymore for that same reason. My husband is not really into "going with the flow" so to speak so we decided to just stay home and spend this day with the people that we are really thankful for...each other. For our little girl, spending time with her Dad the whole day is reason enough to celebrate thanksgiving. As for me, I am thankful every day of my life to be given the pleasure of having my own family who makes my life worth living.
One of my blogger friends, Ritchelle, asked me what thanksgiving is. I somehow have an idea but I'm not 100% sure it's what thanksgiving really is. So while doing my morning news surfing in Yahoo, I found the "origin of Thanksgiving". I'm going to copy and paste a part of the article on here so those of you who are not familiar with Thanksgiving can get the general idea of it.
From Yahoo news:
The meal which settlers from England shared with native Americans in 1621, which has come to be known as the first Thanksgiving, probably didn't feature many of the culinary favorites that grace tables at present day Thanksgivings, and almost definitely did not happen in November, a food historian told AFP.
Indeed, 1621 wasn't even a festival of giving thanks, but was "clearly a harvest festival," said Kathleen Curtin of the Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts, where a 17th-century farming village set up by English colonists on native American tribal lands has been recreated.
"We know that the meal in 1621 included venison, brought by the Wampanoag Indians, and wild fowl -- probably geese and duck hunted by the settlers," Curtin told AFP.
"They didn't have stuffing. They didn't have cranberry sauce because it requires too much sugar. And they probably had pumpkin but no flour or butter for pie crust," she said.
"We don't think there was much alcohol because the settlers' barley harvest wasn't very successful, and they didn't have time to brew anything," she added.
Curtin also stood another tradition on its head by saying the first Thanksgiving happened in September or early October rather than late November.
US President George W. Bush on Monday cast more doubt on whether the 1621 dinner in Plymouth marked the first Thanksgiving, as he recalled a group of English settlers who prayed at what is now Berkeley Plantation in Virginia two years before then.
No feasting took place at the Berkeley Thanksgiving, as Bush called it -- but then the idea of a massive feast is another myth.
"Thanksgiving was a religious event the English settlers had every fall, which was followed up with feasting. We know it was marked around New England in the late 1600s," said Curtin.
"Over time, the feasting became more important and the religious part became less and less important.
"Finally, we got football and something had to go -- it was the church service."
Today's Thanksgiving dinners are often digested in front of the television, while a football game is aired.
The reason why a big to-do is made over the dinner of 1621 is that historians believe it was the first time native Americans and English settlers celebrated a harvest together, said Curtin.
Adam Fortunate Eagle Nordwall, a tribal elder on the Fallon Indian Reservation in Nevada, agreed.
"Native Americans were having harvest festivals forever, and so were the English back in England. They did it together in 1621," Fortunate Eagle told AFP.
But he and Curtin differed over who hosted whom in 1621.
"The native Americans were being generous hosts and sharing their bounty with the pitiful English. It was the generosity and the sharing of the native Americans that made it possible for the settlers to survive in the new world," Fortunate Eagle said.
"The English would certainly have been playing host ... but they were in the middle of the Wampanoag homeland, and Massasoit, the leader of the Wampanoag people, would certainly have expected that he would be welcome," said Curtin.
Thanksgiving officially moved to late November in 1863, when president Abraham Lincoln, in the middle of the bloody civil war, proclaimed the fourth Thursday of the month as a day for giving thanks.
Even Native Americans have got "sucked into the tradition of holding Thanksgiving in November," Fortunate Eagle told AFP.
"We have a feast down at the tribal hall," said the former activist for native rights.
"Everyone's welcome to join in, but, oddly enough, very few white people come from town to share with us.
"Those lousy pilgrims ... 400 years later, they still haven't been able to say 'thank you' to the native Americans who helped make all of this possible."
Thanksgiving meals at the Plimoth Plantation feature many of the foods and drink that did not grace the ground -- they didn't have tables -- in 1621.
Fortunate Eagle, too, will be giving thanks, surrounded by family at a heavily laden dinner table on Fallon reservation.
"We're having turkey and ham," he told AFP.
"Ham -- we got that from the Europeans and we thank them for it," he said.
Somehow I'm glad that we don't do the family rounds anymore for that same reason. My husband is not really into "going with the flow" so to speak so we decided to just stay home and spend this day with the people that we are really thankful for...each other. For our little girl, spending time with her Dad the whole day is reason enough to celebrate thanksgiving. As for me, I am thankful every day of my life to be given the pleasure of having my own family who makes my life worth living.
One of my blogger friends, Ritchelle, asked me what thanksgiving is. I somehow have an idea but I'm not 100% sure it's what thanksgiving really is. So while doing my morning news surfing in Yahoo, I found the "origin of Thanksgiving". I'm going to copy and paste a part of the article on here so those of you who are not familiar with Thanksgiving can get the general idea of it.
From Yahoo news:
The meal which settlers from England shared with native Americans in 1621, which has come to be known as the first Thanksgiving, probably didn't feature many of the culinary favorites that grace tables at present day Thanksgivings, and almost definitely did not happen in November, a food historian told AFP.
Indeed, 1621 wasn't even a festival of giving thanks, but was "clearly a harvest festival," said Kathleen Curtin of the Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts, where a 17th-century farming village set up by English colonists on native American tribal lands has been recreated.
"We know that the meal in 1621 included venison, brought by the Wampanoag Indians, and wild fowl -- probably geese and duck hunted by the settlers," Curtin told AFP.
"They didn't have stuffing. They didn't have cranberry sauce because it requires too much sugar. And they probably had pumpkin but no flour or butter for pie crust," she said.
"We don't think there was much alcohol because the settlers' barley harvest wasn't very successful, and they didn't have time to brew anything," she added.
Curtin also stood another tradition on its head by saying the first Thanksgiving happened in September or early October rather than late November.
US President George W. Bush on Monday cast more doubt on whether the 1621 dinner in Plymouth marked the first Thanksgiving, as he recalled a group of English settlers who prayed at what is now Berkeley Plantation in Virginia two years before then.
No feasting took place at the Berkeley Thanksgiving, as Bush called it -- but then the idea of a massive feast is another myth.
"Thanksgiving was a religious event the English settlers had every fall, which was followed up with feasting. We know it was marked around New England in the late 1600s," said Curtin.
"Over time, the feasting became more important and the religious part became less and less important.
"Finally, we got football and something had to go -- it was the church service."
Today's Thanksgiving dinners are often digested in front of the television, while a football game is aired.
The reason why a big to-do is made over the dinner of 1621 is that historians believe it was the first time native Americans and English settlers celebrated a harvest together, said Curtin.
Adam Fortunate Eagle Nordwall, a tribal elder on the Fallon Indian Reservation in Nevada, agreed.
"Native Americans were having harvest festivals forever, and so were the English back in England. They did it together in 1621," Fortunate Eagle told AFP.
But he and Curtin differed over who hosted whom in 1621.
"The native Americans were being generous hosts and sharing their bounty with the pitiful English. It was the generosity and the sharing of the native Americans that made it possible for the settlers to survive in the new world," Fortunate Eagle said.
"The English would certainly have been playing host ... but they were in the middle of the Wampanoag homeland, and Massasoit, the leader of the Wampanoag people, would certainly have expected that he would be welcome," said Curtin.
Thanksgiving officially moved to late November in 1863, when president Abraham Lincoln, in the middle of the bloody civil war, proclaimed the fourth Thursday of the month as a day for giving thanks.
Even Native Americans have got "sucked into the tradition of holding Thanksgiving in November," Fortunate Eagle told AFP.
"We have a feast down at the tribal hall," said the former activist for native rights.
"Everyone's welcome to join in, but, oddly enough, very few white people come from town to share with us.
"Those lousy pilgrims ... 400 years later, they still haven't been able to say 'thank you' to the native Americans who helped make all of this possible."
Thanksgiving meals at the Plimoth Plantation feature many of the foods and drink that did not grace the ground -- they didn't have tables -- in 1621.
Fortunate Eagle, too, will be giving thanks, surrounded by family at a heavily laden dinner table on Fallon reservation.
"We're having turkey and ham," he told AFP.
"Ham -- we got that from the Europeans and we thank them for it," he said.
Comments
enjoy your threesomeness! hope you had a blast!
tukayo