Tomorrow officially kicks off the 2024 end of the year Holiday Season. Since President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it so in 1863, Thanksgiving Day has been a National Holiday. In 1621, the Plymouth colonists from England and the Native American Wampanoag people shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. A day of Thanksgiving was celebrated by individual colonies and states for more than two centuries prior to the proclamation Lincoln declared in the midst of the civil war.

For Americans today much of the original meaning of the Holiday has been lost and overtaken by our own family traditions. Most include large family feasts and gatherings, while enjoying parades, football, drinks and more food. Turkey, a Thanksgiving staple so ubiquitous it has become all but synonymous with the holiday. Nearly 90 percent of Americans eat the bird – whether roasted, baked or deep-fried, other traditional foods include stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Volunteering is a common Thanksgiving Day activity, and communities often hold food drives and host free dinners for the less fortunate.

However there is much more to the day than food. It is a day to celebrate all the great things we as a nation have accomplished over the years. Thanksgiving celebrations mask the true history of oppression and bloodshed that helped build this nation into the great power it enjoys today.

For quite a long time, English people had been celebrating Thanksgivings that didn’t involve feasting, they involved fasting and prayer and supplication to God. In 1769, a group of pilgrim descendants who lived in Plymouth felt like their cultural authority was slipping away as New England became less relevant within the colonies and the early republic, and wanted to boost tourism. So, they started to plant the seeds of this idea that the pilgrims were the fathers of America.

What really made it the story is that a publication mentioning that dinner, published by the Rev. Alexander Young included a footnote that said, “This was the first Thanksgiving, the great festival of New England.” People picked up on this footnote. The idea became pretty widely accepted, and Abraham Lincoln declared it a holiday during the Civil War to foster unity.

It grew in popularity in the late 19th century, when there was an enormous amount of anxiety and agitation over immigration. And over time this allowed New Englanders to create this idea that bloodless colonialism in their region was the origin of the country, having nothing to do with the Indian Wars and slavery, Americans could feel good about their colonial past without having to confront the really dark characteristics of it. So the celebrations began!

Today we carry on those traditions without studying the history of this country. The oppression of the native Americans. We enjoy our bounty proudly, with tons of food and all the grandeur that goes with it, while others in our own land and around the world suffer from hunger. We are truly a blessed nation, but we didn’t get here easily. We can celebrate Thanksgiving Day knowing that our prosperity, our freedoms, and our heritage were purchased by the blood of our ancestors, who did so willingly, and went through the hardships of life so we would have a better way.

Today when you give thanks for all we enjoy, remember sacrifices were made and will continue to be made so we can remain the land of the free and the home of the brave. Happy Thanksgiving to all!