The holiday season is upon us with a flurry of activity from Thanksgiving to New Years, when family celebrations, holiday parties and friend gatherings flourish. For many, especially children and parents, it is a cherished time. For some, it may be difficult.
The holidays, perhaps more than other times of year, can be loaded – with memories, expectations, longing and loss. The cold and dark of winter can dim the twinkling lights of Christmas trees, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah candles, too.
The gratitude that is filling our inboxes, from well-intended folks, charitable organizations, especially, remind us that giving at this time is a nondenominational ritual from the heart worth embracing.
Simultaneously, we offer a caveat and modest attempt to right storytelling wrongs in the history of our nation.
Though beautiful in its intended spirit, the history of Thanksgiving is fraught with myth and meaning and can be a painful reminder for Indigenous people of the beginnings of the European occupation of their land, language, people and culture.
The first Thanksgiving, though not called it at the time, took place in 1621 as a harvest celebration between the Wampanoag people in Massachusetts and English colonists the history books describe as Settlers and Pilgrims.
The Thanksgiving story, perpetuated over 400 years, has the Pilgrims coming ashore from the Mayflower near Plymouth, Massachusetts, and discovering America. The reality is that the land they disembarked on was the historical homelands of the Wampanoag people.
Tribal leaders shared hunting and fishing practices with the Colonists that kept the Pilgrims from starvation and made possible the harvest celebration we have come to know as the first Thanksgiving.
This peaceful exchange reflected in the story of the first Thanksgiving did not last, and the Wampanoag would within a generation be subject to war, disease and lose access to their land and political independence.
The holiday’s origin story – from the 1621 Harvest Celebration, to a regional observance and day of fasting and quiet contemplation in colonial New England, to an 1863 proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln in an attempt to bring unity to a Civil War-torn nation, to today – has taken root and continues to evolve.
As new generations of Americans bring meaning to the day, celebrating, mourning or feeling no connection to it, the centuries-long tradition of coming together to watch a football game, enjoy a meal, and reflect on and share what we are grateful for persists for many.
The holidays are not easy for everyone and the greatest gift we can give one another is our full, distraction- and device-free attention. Perhaps most of all, in the mix of meeting a stranger’s eyes with a smile, hello or door held open, it is important to ask what the holiday means to them.
However and whatever you celebrate, may your day and days be filled with peace and contentment.
