Thanksgiving in the United States of America
it's Origins, Rituals and Historical Significances
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31973/6b0rq145Keywords:
Pilgrims, Native Americans, United States of America, Plymouth, ThanksgivingAbstract
The study, entitled “Thanksgiving in the United States of America: Its Origins, Rituals, and Historical Significances”, deals with one of the annual holidays that form part of the American cultural heritage. It sheds light on the historical roots of this holiday, represented by the days of thanksgiving that Protestants included in church services, the origin of the first Thanksgiving on the American continent at the hands of the pilgrims in Plymouth in 1621, the objections encountered by the traditional account of its events, and the fact that it was the first Thanksgiving held on American soil. Passing through the rituals of the holiday, especially those developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as the historical meanings of the holiday that changed according to the events witnessed by the American nation at various levels, as we find the holiday a symbol of struggle and steadfastness in the face of the colonizer, especially in the American War of Independence, a symbol of the union of the North and the South in the Civil War, a symbol of social solidarity in the economic crisis of 1929, etc. This is in addition to the historical meaning of the holiday for the Native Americans, who found that its depiction of the friendly relationship between them and the first white settlers and its annual celebration is an attempt to ignore the minds of generations about the genocide they were subjected to during the colonial period, not to mention their continued suffering from marginalization and exclusion, so they created its counterpart, a national day of their own known as the National Day of Mourning, which is celebrated on the same day as the holiday.
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