Thanksgiving Equivalent

Pretty much every society has a kind of 'harvest festival' similar to what we celebrate in the US, but since us self centered Americans don't give a crap about the rest of the world, we haven't really heard of them. 

So, what kind of pathetic, pagan rituals do you and your kind celebrate when the planting season ends?

If they are good enough, we might figure out a way to incorporate getting drunk at one of them   (see: St. Pattys, Cinco de'Mayo, Christmas, etc.)

Seriously, though, what kind of cool fall celebrations do you ... erm celebrate?

get your facts straight in the US thanksgiving is not a pagan holiday and never was

http://www.historychannel.com/thanksgiving/?page=myths

zzzzz wrote:

get your facts straight in the US thanksgiving is not a pagan holiday and never was

http://www.historychannel.com/thanksgiving/?page=myths

From that link:
"The event was based on English harvest festivals"

Um... so... weren't English harvest festivals pagan? (That is, didn't they predate the Roman Empire's switch to Christianity?)

I guess my lame attempt at humor didn't go over as well as it could have.  I was implying that, as an amerikkkan, I believe that the rest of the world's rituals are pagan...

 

 

just look at how the english celebrate thanksgiving and how the US does at that time period  and you quickly see a difference ....

Yes, in the US Thanksgiving has certainly morphed into a religiopolitical monster...

President's Thanksgiving Day 2004 Proclamation

zzzzz wrote:

just look at how the english celebrate thanksgiving and how the US does at that time period  and you quickly see a difference ....

Other than species, I fail to see the difference between sacrificing a goat and sacrificing a turkey.

Again get your facts right the turkey came much latter. 

Second we don't sacrifice the turkey to some pagan like Guaya (not sure of spelling)

Maurits wrote:

Yes, in the US Thanksgiving has certainly morphed into a religiopolitical monster...

President's Thanksgiving Day 2004 Proclamation

Thanksgiving has always been this way.

President Lincoln wrote:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.  To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.  In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.  Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.  Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things.  They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people.  I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.   And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

A. Lincoln

so where is the Morphing?????

The first Thanksgiving was Native Americans saving English men, woman and children from starvation.....when the spring came those same English men hung the Native Americans!

December 25 was a pagan holiday. The Christians made it their own, kind of a "neener-neener" thing

ScanIAm wrote:

So, what kind of pathetic, pagan rituals do you and your kind celebrate when the planting season ends?

If they are good enough, we might figure out a way to incorporate getting drunk at one of them

Hey, don't worry about it - Thanksgiving itself will suffice for that purpose.  After all, according to the Department of Defense's historical account, the Pilgrims' initial encounter with the Indians was very much consistent with such a celebration:

Aboard ship, the voyagers ate bread, biscuits, pudding, cheese, crackers, and dried meats and fruits. Instead of 
water, they brought barrels of beer -- a standard practice in the days before refrigeration, because beer remained 
potable longer than water. ...

They suffered from cold, starvation and disease, and half of them were dead by spring. The survivors were in danger of 
suffering the same fate without much delay. But everything changed in the spring, when a lone Indian walked into the 
settlement and said, in English:
 
"Welcome, English. I am Samoset. Do you have beer?"
 
The Pilgrims were astonished. Of all the places in America they could have come ashore, they'd been found by a friendly 
Indian who somehow spoke their language -- and knew about beer. Once again, they were sure this was a sign of God's 
personal intervention.
 
Samoset explained he'd learned English -- and the fact that ships routinely carried beer -- from having had contact with 
English fishing vessels. Unfortunately, one of the vessels had apparently also brought smallpox, which wiped out some 
of the local tribes. Samoset had survived. 

Samoset introduced them to other friendly Indians, who showed the inept English settlers (who were city folk) how to hunt
and fish successfully and grow the local crops, with which they were unfamiliar.  Their survival was thus due to an Indian who
came to their settlement because he figured (correctly) that they had beer there.  And after all, if you can't trust the
U.S. Department of Defense on this matter, then who can you believe? ;)

So on Thanksgiving, remember how the Pilgrims' survival came about, and tip your glass to the thirsty Indian who made it all possible! :D

eagle wrote:

The first Thanksgiving was Native Americans saving English men, woman and children from starvation.....when the spring came those same English men hung the Native Americans!

Thanks for the turkeys & corn, here's some smallpox. Enjoy!

In the far east, we have mid-autumn celebrations. On the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. This year, it was near the end of September.

Another thought, depending on your latitude, you may not have to shut it down for the winter. Maybe those living near the equator celebrate every crops instead of just once a yr.

Wil wrote:

Hey, don't worry about it - Thanksgiving itself will suffice for that purpose.  After all, according to the Department of Defense's historical account, the Pilgrims' initial encounter with the Indians was very much consistent with such a celebration:

Wow.  Just when you think reality can't get much weirder, you find out that basically the United States of America came to exist because some Indian was jonesing for a beer.

They didn't teach us that in grade school.

I've researched it a bit and it looks like the "Do you have any beer?" question might be true.  (The reply was supposedly, "No, our beer is gone -- would you like some brandy?")

The story on the first "Thanksgiving" seems to vary somewhat.  The standard story is that the "Pilgrims" had a bountiful harvest and wanted to share it with the Indians.

However, this Native American version

http://www.oyate.org/resources/shortthanks.html

says that

According to oral accounts from the Wampanoag people, when the Native people nearby first heard the gunshots of the hunting colonists, they thought that the colonists were preparing for war and that Massasoit needed to be informed. When Massasoit showed up with 90 men and no women or children, it can be assumed that he was being cautious. When he saw there was a party going on, his men then went out and brought back five deer and lots of turkeys.

As for the gunshots, one of the Pilgrims wrote:

Our corn did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn.... Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after have a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors.... And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

So if you combine all the stories, it looked like what happened was:

- The Pilgrims went "fowling" (shooting birds with GUNS)

- The Indians thought all the gunshots meant the Pilgrims were preparing for war

- The Indians sent a war party to the Pilgrims' colony

- When they discovered the Pilgrims were merely having a feast, they joined them and contributed deer and turkeys.

The only thing I don't understand is if the Indians were looking for Beer, why didn't they just check Channel 9?

Beer28 wrote:

ScanIAm wrote: So, what kind of pathetic, pagan rituals do you and your kind celebrate when the planting season ends?

In Canada we have a holiday called thanksgiving, and it's celebrated in the 2nd week of october. This year it was oct. 10th.
We eat turkey and most people have that day off from work.

Exactly as it should be, silly Americans being a month late. But yeah, we do the same things as you Americans, just at the "right" time of year, no sparing of the turkeys up here.

"Seriously, though, what kind of cool fall celebrations do you ... erm celebrate?"

Actually very few countries outside the US celebrate anything in the Fall, but many do have celebrations in Autumn

zzzzz wrote:

just look at how the english celebrate thanksgiving and how the US does at that time period  and you quickly see a difference ....

I'm curious to know who these 'english' are. As an Englishman myself I don't celebrate Thanksgiving. I don't celebrate Christmas either, it being a wholly annoying shopping fest.

ScanIAm wrote:

Other than species, I fail to see the difference between sacrificing a goat and sacrificing a turkey.

Turkeys taste good.