The First Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Misconceptions

Over the centuries the ideal true american Thanksgiving traditions and customs have greatly evolved. I learned from Smithsonian that marketers have played a huge role in this change by using their resources to push their Thanksgiving-esque products on the general public. In addition to this, the NY Times showed me that misconceptions about the first Thanksgiving have become extremely popular, due to history textbooks blurring over the negatives and advertisers creating many wrong beliefs to help sell their products. Overall, the day has gone through many changes from food, to traditions such as dressing up, and beliefs of what really happened on the “first” Thanksgiving due to advertisers and a lack of bluntness in history education. (Huffington Post)

I was shocked to learn from the New York Times that originally, Thanksgiving day was not even named Thanksgiving Day; it was just a celebration of a successful harvest. It was not until the 1830s that New Englanders dubbed the day Thanksgiving which only added to the misconception that the first Thanksgiving was really the first of its kind. (NYTimes) This is very inaccurate because for centuries before the “first” Thanksgiving other cultures (Europeans and Native Americans) were already having celebratory festivals for successful harvests. (NYTimes) Thus not only does the idea of where the holiday came from ring untrue, but also the beliefs of the actual day itself. Most Americans have been taught that the so called “pilgrims” had invited all the Native Americans to come celebrate with them and they all happily joined together to eat turkey, pumpkin pie, and cranberries, thankful for each other and the good harvest. However, this is extremely wrong. First, the pilgrims were not even called pilgrims until 1880, and had named themselves the separatists. (NYTimes) Then, the actual story itself is wrong. Even though Squanto and the Patuxet tribe was present, there is absolutely no evidence of them being invited. (NYTimes) And, the amount of natives that came doubles the amount of pilgrims present which is widely unknown. (NYTimes) There was also most likely not turkey or pie because they did not have the resources to make pie, and turkeys were scarce. Thus, the common knowledge of how Thanksgiving started and the traditions that went with it are almost all incorrect.

Most of the general public, me included, is unaware that most of our traditional foods come from marketers not what the original pilgrims really ate. When reading the Smithsonian article, I found that advertisers have “created, legitimized, and maintained rituals and cultural myths associated with the Thanksgiving meal”. Turkey was most likely not even eaten on the actual day of Thanksgiving and competed against other birds like chicken, duck, and goose until the 1920’s when it became the most popular option. (Smithsonian) Brands are the reason why we now connect pumpkin pie to Thanksgiving or believe cranberry sauce was a dish at the original Thanksgiving. Marketers create our ideals of a Thanksgiving meal almost more than our own familial traditions and customs. (Smithsonian) However, we as the American public have to feed into these beliefs which we do for them to stay relevant. Thus, while marketers have created many of these misconceptions, the American public has maintained them by buying their products.

Sources:
Huffington Post: A forgotten Thanksgiving Custom: Masks, Mischief and Cross- Dressing
Smithsonian:  The Invisible Way That Marketers Set the Menu for Your Thanksgiving Feast

NYTs: Everything You Learned About Thanksgiving is Wrong