The Invention of Thanksgiving

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Summary

Thanksgiving is portrayed as a complex holiday with a seemingly superficial layer masking deeper historical truths. According to Paul Chaat Smith, it's a chaotic and emotional national holiday, symbolic of the whole country in motion. While the meal in Plymouth, often told as the first Thanksgiving, did happen, it wasn't celebrated or remembered for nearly two centuries until rediscovered in the 1840s. Over time, Thanksgiving has evolved to include representations of Native Americans, acknowledging them as integral to the American narrative. The holiday, despite its imperfections, serves as a starting point for reflection and potential transformation of its meaning and traditions.

Highlights

Thanksgiving is a chaotic and emotional nationwide event. 🚗
It's built around a meal that took place at Plymouth, but its importance was only realized much later. 📜
The holiday challenges Americans to face the country's historical truths. 🛠️
Thanksgiving includes Native American representation, however imperfectly. 🦃
The holiday offers a starting point for new discussions and traditions. 🌟

Key Takeaways

Thanksgiving is marked by chaos, emotional turmoil, and nationwide participation. 🚗
It's rooted in a historical event at Plymouth but only gained significance centuries later. 📜
The holiday attempts to reconcile difficult truths about America's past with Native Americans. 🛠️
Despite its flaws, Thanksgiving prompts reflection on national identity and history. 🤔
It's a chance to reimagine the holiday's significance and potentially transform its traditions. 🌟

Overview

Thanksgiving, as described by Paul Chaat Smith, is a whirlwind holiday that symbolizes both chaos and unity across the nation. It’s a defining feature of American cultural life, despite being fraught with emotional challenges and logistical complexities involving long travels and detailed meal preparations. Thanksgiving acts as a national mirror, reflecting both the customary joys and frustrations that come with being a part of a larger societal fabric.

Historically, the event connects to a meal in Plymouth involving the Native Americans and newly arrived settlers. Surprisingly, it wasn't until the 1840s that this event started gaining prominence, having been neglected for two centuries. Thanksgiving narrates an aspiration to communal benevolence, albeit a story that developed into a cornerstone of American cultural identity more out of necessity than initial intent.

As it stands today, Thanksgiving serves as a reminder of the presence of Native Americans in the national story—present in minds, symbols, and cultural depictions that resist being erased. Nevertheless, Thanksgiving provides the opportunity for reflective conversations around acceptance and change, for reimagining the customs to better fit modern insights, while acknowledging the complexity of its history.

Chapters

00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Thanksgiving The chapter introduces Thanksgiving as a chaotic and arduous holiday experience characterized by crowded travel conditions and extensive meal preparation, as described by Paul Chaat Smith.
00:30 - 01:00: The Nature of Thanksgiving The chapter titled "The Nature of Thanksgiving" delves into the emotional complexities and societal dynamics associated with the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. Despite being a time marked by emotional turmoil and conflicts, it is also a national holiday that unifies the country in a unique way, different from any other day. The narrative highlights how the day is characterized by its corny, cartoonish, and kitschy aspects, emphasizing its distinct cultural significance.
01:00 - 01:30: Cultural Reflection and History This chapter explores the complex cultural and historical reflections on Thanksgiving, emphasizing the holiday as a protective layer that prevents direct confrontation with difficult truths about U.S. history. At its core, Thanksgiving is about reconciling with the nation's formation at the expense of Native people, reflecting on the national narrative that strives not only to be good but to be perceived as the best.
01:30 - 02:00: Historical Context of Thanksgiving The chapter "Historical Context of Thanksgiving" discusses the complex historical underpinnings of Thanksgiving in the United States, particularly focusing on the narratives involving Native Americans and African slavery. It notes the challenges these aspects pose to understanding the holiday's history. It explains how the country eventually embraced a simplified narrative about the 'First Thanksgiving' at Plymouth, highlighting themes of neighborliness between the English settlers and Native Americans, despite the nuanced reality.
02:00 - 02:30: Emergence of the Thanksgiving Narrative The chapter titled 'Emergence of the Thanksgiving Narrative' explores the concept of Thanksgiving as an aspirational event, representing our best selves despite the reality that the event didn't have the significance it's often afforded today. Paul Chaat Smith comments on the lack of importance of the historical meal, suggesting that it wasn't memorable enough for the colonists to want to repeat the gathering or even commemorate it at that time.
02:30 - 03:00: Indigenous Influence in Thanksgiving The chapter explores the documentation of early Thanksgiving celebrations by Pilgrims, who meticulously recorded events in letters and journals. These written accounts were forgotten for two centuries until rediscovered in the 1840s. Initially, they were not considered significant, merely mentioned in a footnote, but were eventually recognized for their historical importance.
03:00 - 03:30: The Power of Recognition The chapter 'The Power of Recognition' discusses the deep-rooted, inseparable presence of Native Americans in the history and culture of the United States by the early 20th century. It's emphasized that the connection with Native Americans is not just a past occurrence but a continuing aspect of American identity. Native American influence is pervasive in various societal elements such as imagery, advertising, and cultural events like Thanksgiving. The chapter highlights the ongoing, albeit imperfect, remembrance and recognition of Native Americans in American society.
03:30 - 04:00: Future of Thanksgiving and Cultural Reflection The chapter explores the evolving concept of Thanksgiving, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging and integrating Native American perspectives into the national narrative. It suggests that recognizing these voices can be a catalyst for activism and change, potentially leading to a reimagined version of the holiday. The chapter encourages discussions on how Thanksgiving can transform while still retaining its core values.

The Invention of Thanksgiving Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 [Interviewer:] Alright. So, what is Thanksgiving? [Paul Chaat Smith:] Thanksgiving is insane. It’s this huge, incredible disaster of highways and airports and it’s crowded, and the weather’s awful. A meal that takes days, sometimes weeks of preparation.
00:30 - 01:00 Emotional turmoil. Fights. But, the fact that it’s a national holiday that really envelops everyone, it’s this sense of the entire country in motion in a way that isn’t really like any other day in American life. And the way it’s corny, it’s cartoonish, and kitsch
01:00 - 01:30 is kind of a protective layer to sort of not get too direct about it. So underneath all those things Thanksgiving is about trying to come to terms with this very difficult truth about the United States. That the country is a national project that came about at great expense to Native people. And, it’s not enough that we’re a good country. We kind of have to be the best country, you know.
01:30 - 02:00 But Native people and African slavery, those two things together are huge challenges to how you process this. So, eventually the country ended up deciding you know what, we like the story about that meal at Plymouth, a long, long time ago in which these newly arrived people from England in this new country had their brunch in the forest, with Indians. And what was that saying? That was saying, you know, we’re neighborly.
02:00 - 02:30 We want this to work out. And we know it didn’t all work out. But that’s what we aspire to be. That’s sort of our best selves. [Interviewer:] Did that meal actually happen? [Paul Chaat Smith:] It happened, but nobody really cared. It wasn’t like oh, remember that time last November? Let’s have those folks over again. Fire up the grill. Nobody thought that,
02:30 - 03:00 because it was just a thing that happened. But the Pilgrim folks there, they were writing letters, they were writing journals, they were like really meticulously detailing what was happening. But, even that written account gets lost for basically two hundred years, and doesn’t even emerge until the 1840s, when this document is discovered again. And even then it’s not a big deal. It’s actually in a footnote. And we remember that, we rescue it from being a footnote
03:00 - 03:30 because that has meaning now. And so by the early 20th century Indians are an indivisible part of what creates the United States. It’s not a chapter that happened and was bad and we got over it. We’re in your head. We’re in your pantry. We’re in your garage. This imagery, representations, advertising, Thanksgiving says, however imperfectly we remember Indians we’re remembering Indians.
03:30 - 04:00 And, with all the problems with it it’s still a powerful idea, and it’s still powerful to not Photoshop Indians out of the national narrative. To say, “We’re owning this.” And there’s a way that can open up ways to start thinking about it differently, opens up for people to become activists, and try to change things, invent some new kind of Thanksgiving. Let’s have the discussion, let’s see where that goes. But before you get to the lessons
04:00 - 04:30 and is it right to use that? Is it whatever? I don’t know. I guess if I were to put myself in terms of, you know this, a cartoon Indian and all this at Thanksgiving, I’d probably be saying "I’m glad to be here." Better than the alternative.