The thankful receiver bears plentiful harvest.
– William Blake
Thanksgiving is easily one of the most awaited holidays. It is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November in the United States and on different dates in Brazil, Canada, Grenada, Liberia, and Saint Lucia. The original purpose was to celebrate the harvest and blessings of the past year.
One of the important parts of Thanksgiving is the food. A traditional Thanksgiving dinner consists of roast turkey, turkey stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, corn, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. It is ceremoniously prepared at home and eaten with the entire family. Thanksgiving is followed by Black Friday which is a holiday in more than 20 states, which gives families a chance to enjoy time together and get ready for Christmas.
The story of Thanksgiving comes from the pilgrims that migrated to North America from England. The origins of the current holiday can be traced back to 1619 in Virginia and 1621 at Plymouth (present day Massachusetts) where it was celebrated by English pilgrims and the Wampanoag indigenous people. As the story goes, when the English pilgrims came to America, they first met with the Wampanoag indigenous people who were alarmed by the new people, but welcomed them by showing them how to farm and harvest in the new environment. The story tells us they celebrated the first harvest together and this celebration became the holiday we know as Thanksgiving.
We want to acknowledge the dark history that follows of the rapid colonization and displacement of the Indigenous people. We cannot ignore the injustices the hundreds of Indigenous tribes felt from being plague by small pox that wiped out more than half of the Indigenous population, the forced relocations from their sacred land, and numerous other oppressively acts. This holiday season, we sure have a lot to be thankful for so we ask you to enjoy your time, but also remember the past and appreciate the First Nation and Indigenous people that have aided us. They still face many injustices so consider aiding them in return as well as we all reside in this nation.
We in Purdue Dining & Culinary wish you a happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving with friends and family! If you will be staying with us a little longer, our dining courts and some On-the-Go locations be serving something special during the week of Thanksgiving so stay tuned! Make sure to thank all the staff that have assisted you this semester too as they will always continue to nourish and inspire our community.
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Here is were we found our information for this post:
Thanksgiving. (2020, October 20). Retrieved November 11, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving
Cain, Á. (2017, November 20). The true story behind Thanksgiving is a bloody struggle that decimated the population and ended with a head on a stick. Retrieved November 18, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-thanksgiving-2017-11
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