Many popular holidays like Christmas, Halloween, Easter and New Year’s are celebrated around the globe. However, Thanksgiving, within America, isn’t as celebrated, but why?
Thanksgiving has very controversial origins, making a variety of people uncomfortable or unwilling to celebrate. Thanksgiving’s beginning is seen as when the European settlers, Pilgrims, arrived in North America and exchanged food and culture with the Native American tribes indigenous to the land. However, it was anything but an exchange.
For some Native Americans, Thanksgiving is seen as a day of mourning and reflection on the centuries of oppression and mistreatment they received from the European settlers. The Europeans who first colonized North America brought many diseases that the Native Americans were previously unexposed to, leading to an abundance of illness and death. According to New York food magazine Delish, this illness “made it easier for colonizers to take over these lands.”
The settlers didn’t want to make peaceful relations with the natives. While discussing Thanksgiving and its origins, Delish also stated, “There’s also the fact that settlers came to the land to kidnap and sell Native Americans into slavery.”
Thanksgiving is also in November, meaning it’s right between Halloween in October and Christmas in December. Starting in November, people take down their Halloween decorations. What would they put up instead? Well, since there are not many decorations for Thanksgiving, people tend to use the month for the upcoming holiday the month after. Not only that, but November is also the month when Christmas shopping starts, festive music is played, and holiday-themed treats are being displayed in stores.
“Thanksgiving lasts maybe at most two hours when [family] come[s], eat[s], and leave[s],” Neshaminy High School (NHS) sophomore Kara McMullen expressed. “It’s not nearly as fun as Christmas, Easter, or even Halloween.”
Thanksgiving isn’t the only celebration that people acknowledge in November. Black Friday, a day when stores offer massive discounts to attract customers. It usually works for people who are trying to get their Christmas shopping done.
Thanksgiving also is something that a lot of religions do not acknowledge. For instance, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate due to their controlled aspects towards their religion. Additionally, Muslims only celebrate Thanksgiving if there is no alcohol or haram elements are involved
Thanksgiving, a holiday based on a feast, has mediocre food. Dry, bland turkey with gross cranberry sauce and variations of an appalling casserole? Not very appetizing.
“I just don’t find a lot of it appealing due to how heavy, and frankly, bland, the food is,” McMullen shared.
Thanksgiving messes up dessert, too. There are very limited options, mainly pumpkin pie or other variants of it. Pumpkin pie, like the rest of Thanksgiving food, is dull and dry, specifically the crust which ruins the flavorful filling.
So if the food is bad, which is the main point of the holiday, what’s the point of celebrating?
Although many decide to ignore Thanksgiving, there are some who still appreciate it. Thanksgiving allows people time to reflect and think. NHS junior Madison Havrilla shared her love for the holiday.
“I love Thanksgiving because it’s a time to relax and enjoy time with family and friends,” Havrilla noted. “You get a little break just to reset.”
Nonetheless, Thanksgiving has very few fans, for good reason. Who wants to celebrate Thanksgiving when there are better holidays to look forward to.
