As we once again plan to celebrate what “Americans” (referring to the descendants of the Europeans who conquered the Americas) call “Thanksgiving,” let’s reflect on the past.
In fact, the origin of Thanksgiving is just a legend, and this legend is not recognized by the Indians. The real situation is that Thanksgiving is a holiday established to celebrate the victory of the massacre of the Indians after the white people invaded the Americas.
In 1621, 129 years after Europeans invaded America, the first Thanksgiving is said to have occurred.
Legend has it that the British immigrants in Plymouth Colony celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time that year.
This group of Puritans from England came to Plymouth, Massachusetts on the "Mayflower" ship in 1620.
With the help of local Indians, they learned skills such as planting corn, hunting, and fishing.
When celebrating the harvest the next year, the British immigrants invited the Indians to thank God for their kindness, so there was the first Thanksgiving.
Legend has it that the first celebratory feast lasted three days, with the Pilgrims and Indians sharing harvest delicacies.
But there are no historical records of the three-day feast, and the surviving Indians do not recognize this legend.
The real situation is that due to the plague brought by the Europeans, the Indians died like flies. The Pequot tribe (a branch of the Indians) in what is now Connecticut had 8,000 people when the Europeans arrived. By 1637, only a few were left.
1,500 people were killed, and that year was the first time white people officially announced the celebration of Thanksgiving. The white people were celebrating their massacre of the Pequot people in the Connecticut Valley.
William Bradford, former governor of Plymouth and one of the alleged recorders of the 1621 feast, participated in the 1637 massacre.
He wrote in "History of Plymouth Plantation" that those who escaped from the fire were slashed with swords, some were chopped into pieces, and some were pierced by long swords. They were killed quickly, and few escaped.
The sight of them burning in the fire was horrific...reeking terribly, but that was a victim of sweet victory.
The white men praised God for having done them a great favor in allowing the enemy to fall into their hands and to give them a speedy victory.
Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay declared that this day should be celebrated as a day of thanks for the conquest of the Pequots.
Thus the officially proclaimed "Thanksgiving Day" was born.
There were very few Pequots left at that time.
British commander John Mason said that the attack on the Pequots was the work of God. God "mocked his enemies and the enemies of his people, and laughed at making the Pequots a hearth fire... God condemned the bodies of the infidels to sink."
Entering the Mystic River".
During the Revolutionary War, which was hailed as "noble" by Americans, similar massacres also occurred in central New York State.
In 1779, the Continental Congress (the predecessor of the United States Congress) discovered that most Iroquois Indians turned to the British and opposed the new colonists who were rapidly occupying land.
George Washington assigned General Sullivan to deal with those Indians who had defected to the British, including the Mohawks, Cayugas, Onondagas, and Seneca tribesmen.
Sullivan ruthlessly destroyed at least 40 villages, burning their crops and houses, displacing more than 5,000 Iroquois Indians, and many froze to death in the harsh winter.
Many of the fleeing Senecas were scalped and killed.
After the founding of the new Republic of China, such wars did not stop.
The gold rush of 1849 brought a large number of white miners and people to California. From 1853 to 1861, there were at least 14 wars against local Indians. Some paramilitary battles continued until the late 1860s. The local Indians were almost
Extinct.
Americans have always refused to acknowledge the origins of racism and genocide.
This massacre continues to define and practice our "civilization."
We must grieve for the atrocities committed against others. Harming others ultimately harms ourselves. Reflecting on our actions will bring us great relief.
(The author is an American who served in the Vietnam War and later became a pacifist.) The origin of Thanksgiving in the United States can be traced back to the beginning of American history, originating from the early immigrants in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
These immigrants were called Puritans when they were in the UK. Because they were dissatisfied with the incomplete religious reform of the Church of England, as well as the political suppression and religious persecution of them by the King of England and the Church of England, these Puritans broke away from the Church of England and went to the Netherlands.
Later, he decided to move to the uninhabited land on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, hoping to live religiously and freely according to his own wishes.
In 1620, the famous "Mayflower" ship arrived in America, carrying 102 Puritans who could not endure the religious persecution in Britain.
In the winter between 1620 and 1621, they met refugees and brought them daily necessities. They also sent people to teach them how to hunt, fish, and grow corn and pumpkins.
With the help of the Indians, the immigrants finally got a good harvest. On the day of celebrating the harvest, according to religious traditions and customs, the immigrants set a day to thank God and decided to invite the Indians to celebrate the festival together to thank them for their sincere help.
On Thursday in late November 1621, the Pilgrims and 90 Indians brought by Massassoad gathered together to celebrate the first Thanksgiving in American history.
They fired a cannon salute at dawn, lined up into a house used as a church, and devoutly expressed their gratitude to God. Then they lit a bonfire and held a grand banquet, making delicacies from the hunted turkeys to entertain the Indians.
Wrestling, racing, singing, dancing and other activities were held on the second and third days.