Did we totally change things with our holidays?

As everyone in the USA tries to recover from their food comas, I went onto Twitter, because I apparently hate myself. Apparently YouTube has posted its social justice tweet of the day.

It is a video of a group of women turning over a table with what looks to be traditional Thanksgiving dinner on it. I didn't click on the link, but I am sure it has to do with white people coming to the new world to enslave the native population and such. Blah...blah...blah. All the tribes were peaceful and living in harmony.

A person replied to the tweet that Thanksgiving never happened. Which is hilariously stupid. Every tradition, even Festivus, has roots in reality. There had to be an event that was considered to be the First Thanksgiving which started the tradition of celebrating it, year after year for the last 500 years.

Another Twitter user replied back with the Prager U video about the truth of Thanksgiving.

The video talks about the Pilgrims coming to the New World to establish a Christian nation without worries of The Church of England nor the material excesses of Holland. Through acts of God, they ended up on Plymouth Rock, instead of Manhattan Island. On Plymouth Rock, they saw an abandoned Indian village and just by chance, were greeted by a native named Squanto. Squanto walked up to the pilgrims and spoke to them in English and told him that he was a Christian.

Apparently, years earlier, a ship captain had stolen Squanto and sold him into slavery in Spain. Four years after that, some monks freed him and eventually he made his way to England and then back to his home in the New World. Unfortunately for Squanto, by the time he made it back, everyone from his village had died years earlier due to a plague, most likely small pox. It would seem that it was almost design that the pilgrims landed where they did and Squanto went through what he did in order to communicate with and help the settlers.

Squanto helped the pilgrims plant corn and prepare for the harsh weather of the area. After a year, the pilgrims that survived and local natives came together to celebrate the harvest festival at the end of October. The pilgrims provided vegetables, fish and probably some wild turkeys, while the natives brought deer. After the feast, they all had some fun shooting their rifles.

America!

At this point in the video, they briefly touch on that the festival made have been similar to a previous festival. At 3:45 in the Prager U video, the narrator says.

a Three day harvest festival at the end of October

The video claims that it was inspired by a Biblical festival called Sukkot or Succot. While it would seem odd that these Christians are celebrating Old Testament traditions, it is not unusual. There are many branches of Christianity who keep the Jewish traditions, but also contend that Jesus was The Son of God.

Sukkot or Succot (Hebrew: סוכות‎‎ or סֻכּוֹת, sukkōt), in traditional Ashkenazi pronunciation Sukkos or Succos, literally Feast of Booths, is commonly translated to English as Feast of Tabernacles, sometimes also as Feast of the Ingathering.

This festival is said to be celebrated at the end of year, according to a verse in Exodus. A lot of the celebrations are multi-day celebrations. However, it would seem that Sukkot is celebrated at the end of September or the beginning of October.

Exodus 23:16 You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor

Being that the pilgrims were originally from the British Isles, there is another possibility. There is a three day harvest feast that is celebrated at the end of October. This feast is meant as a time to prepare for the darker and colder months of the year. It is an ancient festival called Samhain, where the last of the harvest is collected and animals that will be slaughtered for winter meat are killed.

I wrote an article about it last month.
Happy Samhain! Happy End of Summer! Happy Halloween!

So, it looks like, the Pilgrims were celebrating a Christianized version of Samhain. As the case with many traditions, people would adjust them and make them Christian festivals for a couple of reasons. One reason was that before Christians became dominate, it was a way to hide their traditions in plane site. And the second reason was to make it easier for pagans to adapt to Christian followings. Samhain was one of those festivals that was altered over the years and as time went along, Samhain was split in to Halloween in October and Thanksgiving in November.

I hope you had a bountiful feast day!

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Let the positive energy sing!

More Power to the Minnows!!