Good thing we only have to eat turkey once a year. Chickens, pigs, and cows taste much better.
In the United States, we have our harvest festival late and we call it Thanksgiving. The idea is that we are thankful a bunch of Puritan immigrants to the “New World” didn’t starve because some natives (who hadn’t died from smallpox yet) helped them out. Sometimes we even make pictures of Puritans and natives sitting around a huge oak table covered with tons of food.
This is ridiculous of course. The idea of a harvest festival came with the Puritans from the “Old World” and the natives didn’t save this particular group of settlers from starvation.
Nowadays we like to thank God for stuff around thanksgiving time. At this time of year, we also like to quote the bible where it instructs us to give thanks to God.
I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!
A Psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
In 2002, an episode of the Gilmore Girls titled, “A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving” brought our relationship with Thanksgiving into proper perspective.
Luke Danes: Shouldn't we give thanks first?
Jess Mariano: Thanks for what?
Luke Danes: Well, that we're not Native Americans who got their land stolen in exchange for smallpox infested blankets.
Lorelai: Amen.
Moral: On Thanksgiving we must remember to thank God for loving us more than those poor Native Americans whose land he allowed to be stolen in exchange for smallpox infested blankets.
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