What does Thanksgiving represent?

Question

Is it a religious celebration or a national one? I wonder because I live in a christian country but we don't celebrate that. Actually the first time I heard about it was on TV in a movie. So what does it represent, and what else do you do other than eating turkey?

Answer 1

It is a day to commemorate the thankfullness of the WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) to the Real Americans (Native Americans)... Otherwise they would die of starvation.... I mean the first stupid settlers.... Native Americans helped them and rescued them from starvation....

Answer 2

Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America.
It was something shared by pilgrims and pagans alike but since it is a religious celebration it was shunned upon by some.
Everyone believed that Thanksgiving is an ongoing celebration which commenced from 1621 amongst the pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians the highlights of which would be the feasts of dancing, wining, and dining, and they didn’t care about heart diseases. It was a feast celebrated by pilgrims and the colonists alike.
Unlike our common belief that they shared a turkey-some of these celebrations didn’t have so much at all; they sometimes ate with their bare hands.
Anyway, traditions are followed and are made better especially amongst capitalist nations. It is a chance at commercialism.
But what is it really?
It is a day that we should be thankful for everything that we have: the air we breathe, the food we eat, the jobs we have, the kids we enjoy, the love ones we have etc…
We should not be only thankful of the earthly material possessions but the gifts of life, which we often regret to do on our daily prayers. We are so engorged with our material trappings that we think it is the only thing we should be thankful for.
Everyday when we open our eyes in the morning we should offer thanksgiving for that gift-ever wonder why America had to declare a holiday for that?
It is a lame excuse for us businesses to get rid of old stocks in the "biggest sale of the year" to provide more room for the xmas goods on the shelves.
Now who do we offer the thanksgiving to>--Is it also a choice?

Answer 3

Supposedly, it is a celebration of the indians helping out pilgrims during the first winter in the New World. That's the story they feed to children at least. No one really knows why we do it anymore, they just know we eat a lot, watch football, and the day after it becomes ok to start decorating for christmas. The 4-day weekend and time and a half pay doesn't hurt either. In reality, it's another bullsheet holiday, but from what they taught us in school, it is in no way a religious holiday. Unless you count the fact that pilgrims forced religion onto the indians and killed them when they didn't convert.

Answer 4

I always thought of it as a national celebration, not a religious one, although every day is a day I should celebrate God. It's a remembrance of when the Pilgrims broke bread with the Natives and everyone got along. In my family we just eat turkey, stuffing, yams, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie, then watch tv. The meal itself takes all day to cook and the leftovers last a week.

Answer 5

The Pilgrims were very thankful to the Lord for helping them survive their first year in the new land of America. America's beginning was not easy and with the help of a native indian tribe they survived their first year and celebrated with a Thanksgiving meal. We have done this every year since that time.

We eat Turkey, cornbread dressing, sweet potatoes, broccoli and cheese casserole, fancy green beans, cranberry sauce, fruit salad, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, pecan pie, brown and serve rolls and iced tea. Every year at least one dish is completely new and different. Called the "surprise dish." This year it is a new cheese ball made with Hidden Valley dry dip mix.

Besides eating turkey, we watch football games, go shopping for Christmas or just relax. The prayer is special at our table, because it is truly a time to thank the Lord.

Answer 6

It is a holiday in North America. It is not a religious holiday. It's roots are from the Native American harvest feast that the Pilgrims were also allowed to participate. Over the years it became a tradition.
Abraham Lincoln made it a national holiday. It is just meant to be a day of thanks to whoever or whatever you feel appropriate.

Answer 7

It's a national celebration in the U.S. It represents a successful harvest season. The original settlers allegedly had a feast with the natives that helped them.

Answer 8

A long, twisted history. Basically, a bunch of settlers mooching off of the natives way before this was the USA.

It fell dormant for a century or more, but a woman kept pushing politicians to make it an official holiday, with Lincoln finally making the proclamation.

Answer 9

It is an American holiday in the rememberance of a group of Christians who came to this land on a ship called the Mayflower seeking the freedom to worship the way they thought to be most biblical. They had just survived a horible year in a strange place and God had preserved a goodly number of them and had allowed them to gain favor with the natives. The natives threw them a dinner one time when they had almost nothing to eat, and they dedicated that meal to being thankful to both the natives and to God. This is why we observe thanksgiving.

Answer 10

Thanksgiving is about as Christian as Independence day, both not at all Christian whatsoever. It was created to boost turkey sales, so basically, we eat turkey and feast. People say it's about "giving thanks" but the turkey farmers just used that as an excuse to make it an official holiday.