it's whimsical wednesday and our activity is to hunt (learn) something new about thanksgiving. perhaps use this new found knowledge to incorporate into your thanksgiving celebration.
this morning i took an extensive tour of the internet seeking information about thanksgiving. several sites touted themselves to be about the REAL thanksgiving. those i read thinking i would find out a lot about thanksgiving. i did. it's a given that a lot of what we "know" about all sorts of celebrations, persons, events are a mixture of fact and fiction. it just evolves that way over time, whether by concerted effort or happenstance. but what i discovered new about thanksgiving nearly ruined my (our family's) favorite holiday of the year:
*there was a first thanksgiving that was good between native americans and english settlers but it was a singular event.
*thanksgiving was offered by the english settlers for having successfully murdered hundreds of native americans and themselves "spared".
*some native american nations observe thanksgiving as a day to remember the murder of their ancestors and/or protest against the injustice to them by the american government.
*president franklin roosevelt deemed the official thanksgiving the fourth thursday of november. to please merchants, novembers with five thursdays offered one more week of christmas shopping. this changed the official thanksgiving day put into place by president abraham lincoln.
*the most famous parade, the macy's thanksgiving day parade orginated in order to bring attention to the store and entice more customers.
*professional football has been played on thanksgiving since its inception. collegiate football has been played on thanksgiving for at least a century.
*this week, in the news, it was announced that major stores will be open on thanksgiving day instead of waiting to open for business on friday after thanksgiving. this is hardly a surprise. while black friday has been a thanksgiving holiday weekend tradition for many years, last year some stores opened for business on thanksgiving night.
it seems thanksgiving was about slaughter, shopping, self-promotion and sports. how disheartening. then i read an article about thanksgiving by a native american. the author allowed that, yes, the history about thanksgiving cannot be changed and it's best to accept reality. however, he offered further, that giving thanks for what is good about life is a long held tradition by native americans. the day set aside on the fourth thursday of each november was as good as any other day to observe a special day of thanksgiving. i was encouraged.
moving along, i turned my attention to looking for ideas for thanksgiving table decor; thinking festive would brighten my mood. as i browsed different websites, i came across one idea that caused me to laugh out loud. one idea was to use a canning jar to house a medium sized column candle. the material used to hold the candle in place was pop corn kernels. my first thought upon seeing the pop corn was that the heat of the candle would cause the pop corn to pop and what a mess that would be! of course, the candle's flame would not be hot enough to pop the corn kernels but it was fun to think of the possibility! perhaps i will utilize the idea of the candle in canning jars but will use small rocks for the stabilizer.
whew! what did you learn about thanksgiving this whimsical wednesday?
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