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Thanks Giving day vs Bonfire Night.

Nov 24, 2005 yodaofborg link
Ok, from what I gather (told to me by an American person)

[Quote "the US guy"]
yo thanksgiving is when we take 1 day out of a year to be thankful for all we have gotten up to that point.
(me : so you eat Turkey?)
yes, because the pilgrams that came here the first time was starving and the indians taught them to kill and eat turkey
(ohhh, neat, so, ehum, i kinda get it)
yep,its bad about the indians though, they saved us then years later we almost killed them off
[/Quote]
A reason to eat turkey? heh

hehe, sounds as bad as Bonfire night to me, basically, us here in the UK, set off fireworks and stuff, to celebrate the time some guy plotted to kill our Govenrment, well, he failed, got strecthed into nasty shapes n stuff. Heh, I guess most people now just see it as a reason to set off fireworks, and set fire to stuff.

What does this say about, errm, us?
Nov 24, 2005 Beolach link
Heh. But "Burn in effigy" sounds so much cooler than "Eat lots, 'cause we can".
Nov 24, 2005 Celkan link
yoda: you mean Guy Fawkes day, perhaps?

Hehe that was a funny story.
Nov 25, 2005 Forum Moderator link
(me : so you eat Turkey?)
yes, because the pilgrams that came here the first time was starving and the indians taught them to kill and eat turkey
(ohhh, neat, so, ehum, i kinda get it)


The colonists didn't actually call it Thanksgiving back in 1621. It was a harvest festival celebrating a plentiful agricultural harvest and adequate provisions for winter. This was probably between late September and mid-October when the harvest was brought in. November would have been way too late, seeing as it would have been quite cold and they had no indoor facilities large enough to have a feast. Writings from that first recorded Thanksgiving in 1621 do not indicate that turkey specifically was served. Venison (deer meat, courtesy of the "Indians" who brought 5 deer for the occasion) was the main course and was mentioned often in writings from the time - mostly because venison was eaten primarily by the rich back home in England. The colonists didn't do it again the next year, or annually for that matter. It wasn't an official national holiday until Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it as such in 1863.
Nov 25, 2005 jexkerome link
Yup, typical Harvest Celebration hijacked by that Lincoln guy for nationalistic purposes. Like a secular equivalent of christmas, you know?

*goes bomb the House of Parliament*
Nov 25, 2005 toshiro link
You can't blame him. Nationalism was en vogue back then.
Nov 25, 2005 ananzi link
gotta agree w jex. lotsa prehistoric festivals become 'holidays' in modern society with tacked on meanings. but partying is a natural human instinct and people will use any excuse to do it.

we had a british teacher at my american grade school and we actually did guy fawkes day, made up dummies, had a bonfire.

funny that britain is now part of europe trying to force the US to abandon 'cruel and unusual punishment' like torture and the death penalty, when they have a national holiday where they teach kids to celebrate burning a guy to death.
Nov 25, 2005 jexkerome link
But the british only burn effigies, while the US does torture and kill real people. A VERY important distinction.
Nov 26, 2005 Celkan link
I always thought Guy Fawkes set himself on fire by accident. :/
Nov 26, 2005 Forum Moderator link
Nope, he was captured, tortured, and hung.

The burning "guy" tradition started in 1606 (the year Guy Fawkes was hung) but the effigy burnt until 1806 was not Fawkes at all. It represented Pope Paul V, who refused to allow Catholics to take the oath of allegiance to the Crown.

"guy" was slang for a a person of grotesque appearance, like a bum.
Nov 26, 2005 Beolach link
> It wasn't an official national holiday until Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it as such in 1863.

Addendum: while Abraham Lincoln and all subsequent U.S. Presidents did declare a national day of thanksgiving on the final Thursday of November, it wasn't until 1941 that Congress officially made it an anually recurring holiday. In 1939 during the Depression, President Theodore Roosevelt declared the 2nd to last, rather than the last, Thursday of November to be the national day of thanksgiving, hoping that the change would help boost the economy by giving a larger Christmas shopping period. However about half the states held thanksgiving on the last Thursday, despite Roosevelt's declaration (and Texas made both the second to last and last Thursdays government holidays). This confusion was what prompted Congress to pass the bill making Thanksgiving an anually recurring holiday on the 4th Thursday of November (which is sometimes the last and sometimes the second to last Thursday).