Thanksgiving is often parodied in popular culture as a forum of sorts for extended family to bicker. Crazy uncles ramble incoherently about matters of little importance as the football game blares in the background. A slightly sinister mother-in-law makes condescending comments about the dinner she should have helped with if only she had known what atrocities had been occurring all day in the kitchen.

Hollywood has continuously upheld this very sequence of a traditional Thanksgiving in the United States. Seemingly lost is the context upon which Thanksgiving flourished and the misconceptions about its origins and purpose. Inevitable are the controversies that surround this cherished American holiday.

United States tradition associates the holiday with a meal held in 1621 by the pilgrims and the Wampanoag, a local native tribe, in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This meal has been caricatured throughout the United States in elementary school plays, and often seeps into preliminary curriculum. It is therefore a source of much imagery associated with contemporary Thanksgiving celebrations.

“I can remember making all the hand turkeys in grade school, and putting on the plays that reenacted the feast,” said Dana Johnson, sophomore in ALS. “I think we did it every year of elementary school.”

Historians of the time noted that this meal did in fact occur. Present in their accounts are depictions of the wild turkey as a component of the meals throughout the three day festival, and the congregation of the locals and pilgrims. The celebration itself was spurred by recognition of God’s hand in the reaping of a bountiful harvest following a harsh winter. It is believed that the pilgrims’ survival throughout their first winter was largely due to local aid, and that natives were supposedly graciously received at the feast.

This sort of harvest festival, however, was somewhat common well before Plymouth. Recorded accounts of such festivals held between colonists and locals reached back as far as 1541 and 1565 within present United States territory. The 1621 date, however, was selected by historians to be associated with the present annual holiday.

A common misconception is that Thanksgiving was continuously celebrated since 1621. On a local level within the Massachusetts Bay Colony, this is true. On a national level, however, a day of Thanksgiving was not annual, and was enacted sporadically by U.S. presidents often in response to what are now considered historical landmarks. George Washington proclaimed Thanksgiving in December 1777 after the American victory at Saratoga. President Madison also declared Thanksgiving at the close of the War of 1812. John Adams and various other U.S. presidents declared Thanksgiving at random times of the year until 1863, when Abraham Lincoln officially declared Thanksgiving a national holiday. National unity was the ultimate intention of this declaration seeing as the country was presently in civil strife. The United States was also split by the strong immigrant presence, and Thanksgiving was seen as a way to give both new immigrants and natural born citizens something uniquely American.

For some, however, a bitter irony of sorts comes out of Thanksgiving and its associations. The holiday itself is based upon a supposed compromise and friendliness between locals and colonists in 1621. Revisionist historians, however, hold that the colonies and eventually the United States government waged a genocidal war against the Native Americans, driving them to near extinction. The popularization of Thanksgiving would then be an attempt to eclipse or negate this atrocity, according to revisionist historians.

“Thanksgiving is fun and all, but it’s a little odd how we celebrate the coming together with race of people that the pilgrims nearly wiped out,” said Keith Hollenkamp, freshman in LAS.

Keith was not the only one to hold these sentiments.

“It’s a great time for American families, but at the same time it’s almost like the celebration of an American tragedy,” said Michael Theodore, sophomore in ACES.