Yesterday was the first day in my life I learned the TRUE meaning of Thanksgiving. All of my life I was told that we have Thanksgiving because the pilgrims and the NATIVE AMERICANS (NOT INDIANS) got together and had a big happy feast. While this may have happened at some point in time this is not the true celebration of Thanksgiving, this is what we are taught to believe.
In 1637 over 700 unarmed Native American men, women, and children were slaughtered by English and Dutch mercenaries. They called this massacre A Day of Thanksgiving. The 2nd Thanksgiving celebration was just as horrific. The churches celebrated the deaths of the Native Americans which they thought were heathen savages. Heads of Native Americans were cut off and used as soccer balls in the streets. These killings became tradition and would happen before they feasted and celebrated the success. This is what we today call Thanksgiving, the REAL meaning to it.
Eventually during the civil war Abraham Lincoln declared it to be a national holiday with a different meaning. He wanted to bring some form of peace so he introduced it as a holiday to sit down with your family and have a happy meal together. He was really smart to change the IDEA of Thanksgiving and transform it into the wonderful holiday it is today. However we can't just overlook it's TRUE MEANING, we can' t just eliminate it from our history. I feel it is essential to learn about things like this in our history so we don't have to worry about repeating it today. We can't just teach kids the things we think they should know about the world. Kids need to be taught not only the achievements and the accomplishments we have had throughout history, but they need to be taught about the horrific, terrible things like this too. Teaching kids all of the bad things we went through in our history, all of the people who died, and were murdered, all of the fighting and the wars, all of the discrimination and racism, will prepare them for the REAL WORLD. We can't fill their heads with the idea that there are no bad people or that the world is the safest place to be because it is not. I think every child should be taught the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
This year when I am eating my dinner with my family, I want to give my blessings to them. Them; the ones who lost their lives in 1637. The ones who were shot or beaten to death in the middle of the night. The ones who had families to raise. The ones who didn't get to have what I have today.
