Everything has origins: from the stories we tell at the dinner table, to the very holidays we celebrate. Thanksgiving is a well-worshiped, highly celebrated occasion in the United States, but like many other celebrations, this holiday has roots in pagan traditions.
From the beginning of the concept surrounding religions and belief systems, many people placed food and offerings at temples and altars in order to give thanks to their gods. This practice is much more common amongst polytheistic religions, such as Ancient Greek and Roman religion. While people way back in the past did not celebrate Thanksgiving per say, they did observe Samhain, a Gaelic festival that celebrated the coming of fall.
Samhain is a communion with the lives of those who have passed away — which usually integrates paying respect to family members, friends, parents, elders, and ancestors of the faith. This festival goes about by casting bonfires, preparing food for the dead and the living, and holding hands in a circle to cast out the negative energy.
Huge festivities stemmed from ancient religions, but the tradition of having large meals comes from later times. As society develops, religion and folklore changes with each time the story is told. Eventually, with the occurrence of other important events across the world, these are also stirred into society’s culture and celebrations.
The concept of having a huge meal, therefore, comes from the story of Europeans colonizing American land and having a feast together with Native Americans as a form of peace. Although this infantilized story has white-washed and normalized the horrors of what happened to many Native American tribes, the story has now made its way into America’s culture.
Humanity is naturally a creation, a mold of all the things that have come before us, and so it is quite natural to see so many different forms of celebrating coming together to form what is now Thanksgiving. What is important now is not erasing and ignoring this coalition, but embracing them and becoming educated on cultural differences.
