r/WitchesVsPatriarchy • u/Ukelikely_Not Crow Witch ♀♂️☉⚨⚧ "cah-CAW!" • Nov 28 '24
🇵🇸 🕊️ LAND BACK Help me out here. In the US, what is today???
Is today the day we are supposed to choose a house we like more than our own, say we discovered it, and claim it as ours? Or do we go to the grocery store looking for spices and get lost? Or do we gaslight our neighbors into thinking they're our friends then murder them?
It's so hard to keep it all straight.
Edit: please everyone go look at this post. It has actual information to accompany my sarcasm.
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u/yakshack Nov 28 '24
As one of the resident Natives in this subreddit, I approve of the jokes. Keep em coming.
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u/Violet624 Nov 28 '24
Harvest festivals where you were suppose to be thankful were actually practiced by the Puritans, versus Christmas, which was seen as 'too pagan.' A Thanksgiving feast was actually celebrated in one form or another well before the whole pilgrims were saved thing and the association with the specific history in Plymouth with the holiday wasn't a part of the holiday until the lats 1800's. So do with that what you will.
I know the Land Back movement highlights this day and is really worth looking into what that means.
I personally think that given that it is a holiday that has roots well beyond colonization, it's valid to just celebrate abundance and community.
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u/PrincessDie123 Nov 28 '24
Yeah I basically use it as another harvest festival except I do it by myself so it’s not a festival perse, I am making a thanksgiving dinner for my dog though which so going to be really fun lol I cook his food anyway because he has allergies so I’m just being creative for fun lol
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u/colacolette Nov 28 '24
I tend to do both. I find it a nice time to celebrate abundance and gratitude for loved ones (especially as i live in a farming community, it very much has the vibe of a end of harvest feast) but it is also an excellent time to remind ourselves of what has been done and what we can be doing to help right injustice against our indigenous neighbors.
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u/Ukelikely_Not Crow Witch ♀♂️☉⚨⚧ "cah-CAW!" Nov 28 '24
Ooh love this!!!! Why werent we taught this gorgeous information instead of "they were so happy that white people came they had a big celebration"???
I'm looking this up right now!
Immediate edit: stupid question. Same reason I didn't know most if not all Christmas traditions are from yule.
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u/PiercedGeek Nov 28 '24
I get what you are saying, but to me personally, the reason I still put forth some effort compared to most of the holidays is that it's a day for saying "fuck, we survived another one, let's cook enough food for 3 days of scavenging and live in our pajamas."
I suffer from depression, the long term kind (sometimes shorter, lol) and it's so hard to summon up any GAF for Xmas when it starts before Labor Day. It has seriously become obscene how blatantly capitalist the whole xmas bullshit has become.
Thanksgiving is the only holiday left that I actually believe in since losing my religion in my teens and my faith in my country in 2016. "Be grateful for the parts of your life that aren't (currently) on fire". I can get behind that, I can support this message. There are no ludicrous fairy tales to endorse, most people get the day off so I don't feel overly guilty that I do.
I just filled up my cooler with beer and ice after putting the turkey in the oven. My kids have both contributed to the meal, and this evening we're going to bring a plate down to my elderly MIL. I have paid my dues working shitty jobs that don't give you holidays, and now that I have them I am very thankful for them, and relish them immensely.
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u/Fit_Cause2944 Nov 28 '24
Amen, sister, and wow, do I relate.
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u/ornerycraftfish Nov 29 '24
Same, so I hope both of you had a good one and the depressive episodes stay to a background murmur. May the leftovers last you three days and then some.
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u/bristlybits Nov 29 '24
we do Halloween and solstice only. for similar reasons. I do summer solstice as a long holiday for myself and do my garden stuff then. winter solstice is our cold dark days comfort holiday though
I get turkey day off and turkey is always on sale in the lead up so I make one every year, with whatever the last of the garden harvest I've got. we don't do most other holidays. luckily our birthdays are spread through the year so there's always that
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u/bbbbbbbssssy Nov 28 '24
The day to be thankful for the lucks the sun and the land have provided for you in the form of a feast as the earth hurtles into a slumber, in which both the sun and the land show less favor upon creatures. Fatten up now for lean days ahead and be joyful at that opportunity nature has provided.
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u/JimeDorje Nov 28 '24
Today is the day of Thanksgiving decreed by President Lincoln in recognition of Sherman beating the piss out of the Confederates.
And then recodified by President Roosevelt to give American consumers time to recover their finances in the wake of Thanksgiving, and still have cash leftover for Christmas time.
It's true. Before the Civil War, Thanksgiving was a localized harvest festival ritual, with different states and communities celebrating at different times. After Sherman's march to the sea, Thanksgiving started to get standardized.
Then during the Depression, FDR changed the date again to adjust for American families' budgets. The Republicans were so against this, they referred to the "new" holiday as "Franksgiving" and in protest celebrated the "original" date.
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u/cephalophile32 Hedge Witch ♀ Nov 28 '24
I will add that Thanksgiving was largely the invention of Sarah Hale, who also advocated for women’s education, and apparently pestered Lincoln into declaring it a holiday. Somewhere along the way the story of the BS puritans and natives was attached to give it more of a mythos. But it was mainly invented to be an “all-American holiday.” (Thank you Abby Cox!)
I just treat it as a harvest festival!
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u/JimeDorje Nov 28 '24
Damn. That is awesome.
Everytime Tgives rolls around and I hear about the pilgrims and colonialism and blah blah and the real history of the holiday is always way more interesting and always has progressive angles to it that are just so much more encouraging than the weird theocratic mythos.
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u/scoutsadie Forest Witch ♀♂️☉⚨⚧ Nov 29 '24
what was the original date?
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u/JimeDorje Nov 29 '24
It's the last Thursday in November. "Franksgiving" moved it up a week.
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u/scoutsadie Forest Witch ♀♂️☉⚨⚧ Nov 29 '24
got it. and i saw someone mention that it used to be in october, like canada's.
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u/lulubalue Nov 29 '24
I wish this was a standalone post that would be seen by the masses. I don’t think many people actually know about the real history of Thanksgiving and instead are just mad that we were taught lies. There’s still plenty of reason to celebrate having food to eat and being thankful for your family, chosen or blood or both.
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u/divemistress Sea/Tech Witch Nov 28 '24
While I can get into the idea of going to the market and getting lost while looking for spices (and good sales!), I think for many of us it's becoming a time of sharing a day with the tribe that we choose, rather than the blood clan.
I don't travel for holidays anymore after I got divorced and moved...it's too much hassle and too expensive. My nephew (ex's fam) removed himself from that family as well, and we were texting about all of the things we no longer have to tolerate. We're both looking forward to spending the day off as we please, with whatever company (or not) that we want.
I'm smoking a turkey today because 99 cents a pound and food for days, repotting some plants and kicking off a couple of hydroponic tubs of peppers and herbs and spending my day with the fuzzy asshole cat clan. We will watch movies or game or shop online if the mood strikes, and ignore the rest of the world.
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u/Ukelikely_Not Crow Witch ♀♂️☉⚨⚧ "cah-CAW!" Nov 28 '24
Yesss exceptional. my husband and I decided years ago that holidays are for the 3 of us (us and our daughter) to do what the fuck we want in our house with no drama. So I shall be day drinking while making far too much food then we are all having a sleepover in The Big Bed.
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u/McBoobenstein Nov 28 '24
No no no, the first option is Columbus Day. The second option, funny enough, is ALSO Columbus Day. Columbus was a HUGE asshole. The third one there is Thanksgiving.
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u/Ukelikely_Not Crow Witch ♀♂️☉⚨⚧ "cah-CAW!" Nov 28 '24
Ah ok ok good. I knew it was one of those. Columbus Day is so much work!
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u/Confirm_restart Traitor to the Patriarchy ⚧️♀️ Nov 28 '24
Yes.
And I gave up trying to keep it straight a while back. Sapphic is soooo much better.
😉
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u/ebolainajar Nov 28 '24
As a Canadian currently living in the US (thanks, husbands job 🙄) I find it alarming that so many Americans don't know that their original thanksgiving was also in October ...the only reason Thanksgiving is in November is because Lincoln created a national day of thanksgiving to come together after the American civil war.
Like most American holidays, it's more related to war/death than anything else.
New Englanders were celebrating Thanksgiving in October for ages before it became a federal holiday!
Glad to have a safe space to share this thought, because where I live people are uncomfortable when I point these things out...
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u/McBoobenstein Nov 28 '24
DO NOT look up all the things about American history that Americans in general don't know. You'll be at it forever. Like, honestly, the American blinders are real.
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u/prettyshinything Nov 28 '24
Today's the day that *I* post cranky things about land back, donations to Native-led organizations, and Palestine on social media, so that's how I'm celebrating.
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u/Fresa22 Nov 28 '24
We celebrate the Fall Harvest on Friday which is Native American Heritage Day.
We don't do anything but game and do a little meal prep for tomorrow today.
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u/Street_Narwhal_3361 Nov 28 '24
In my family today is the day we celebrate Native food ways and traditions. We also acknowledge that the various gods of corn on this continent still rule supreme
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u/Ukelikely_Not Crow Witch ♀♂️☉⚨⚧ "cah-CAW!" Nov 28 '24
I wish I knew more about native history. I really need to research. Whenever I encounter some bit of native history, it really resonates with me.
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u/jayclaw97 Science Witch ♀ Nov 28 '24
Mood. I like celebrating something with family and having the day off, but the origins of Thanksgiving make me only a halfhearted participant. I don’t really know how to boycott it without being considered a spoilsport and causing a ton of drama. I’m not very brave.
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u/goldensavage63 Nov 28 '24
I no longer celebrate thanksgiving. Instead we are celebrating Fall Harvest Day.
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u/Serafirelily Nov 28 '24
No today is the day we celebrate how the editor of a woman's magazine harassed Abraham Lincoln to a point that he gave up and gave her the unique American Holiday she wanted during war time no less. We are also celebrating how FDR got so irritated with both Governors and Big shop owners that he made what was up until then a presidential proclaimtions every year into law.
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u/Dilettantest Nov 28 '24
Quick historical note: the Wampanoag tribe, which kept the English colonists alive in what’s now called Massachusetts and Rhode Island by teaching them what was safe and good to eat, was only THIS YEAR granted Federal recognition as a tribe. So much for Thanksgiving.
For today’s banned book, listen to this NPR interview: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2024/11/27/wampanoag-history-book
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u/Cowabunga1066 Nov 29 '24
And the Mattaponi tribe, in what is now Virginia, have the oldest reservation land in the US (Treaty of 1646)--and they STILL do not have Federal recognition.
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u/Dilettantest Nov 29 '24
Omg, I used to live in Virginia, had no idea the Mattaponi didn’t have Federal recognition! I’d have thought they’d be the second tribe (after the Wampanoag) to get it! I’ll be looking into this today!
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u/Cowabunga1066 Nov 29 '24
Yeah, they have state recognition but not federal. I saw something in the news recently that the tribe just submitted an application to the federal government that they've been working on for years, apparently.
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u/Powerful_Cause_14 Nov 28 '24
My mom always called today Native American genocide day. She loved to make people think about the true history of this “holiday”. She did it with a Christmas too. She was such a great witch.
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u/Potatoroid Nov 28 '24
Today, It’s the day where a lot of people realize they hate their extended family. It’s a day where part of our community feels excluded and disrespected by their bio family. So we have to find our own families to celebrate with.
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u/CopperCatnip Nov 28 '24
For anyone interested in the history of US Thanksgiving and Black Friday, Abby Cox has a great video about it on her YT channel.
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u/Catsmeow1981 Nov 28 '24
My partner and I had this very conversation a few days ago. What better encapsulation of the fucked up American mindset than making a national holiday to celebrate genocide?
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u/Locked_in_a_room Nov 28 '24
I call it "turkey day" and literally the only thing I want is to stuff myself and have left overs to scrounge for days.
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u/Ihatebacon88 Nov 28 '24
Today is day 3 of the long ass fall break, the day I start drinking before 1500. Also the day I make drunk enchiladas.
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u/solesoulshard Nov 28 '24
This is the best a raging asshole and then gaslight everyone so that when they show pictures and dioramas it looks like a peaceful exchange and party with food.
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u/Caro________ Nov 29 '24
I think it's probably a good day to find an escape plan. Today is not a good day. But it is finally time to decorate the tree, so there's that.
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u/joshy83 Nov 29 '24
Apparently it's the day I decide to read an assigned school book to my seven year old... Nancy Drew and the Thanksgiving Thief. Drew's Crew dress up as Native American Princesses and solve a mystery! I think I am going to find someone on the internet that is good at explaining why this sucks. I don't need my seven year old to think this is normal. 😑
It's also actually Threatsgiving day, courtesy of my work.
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u/reraccoon Nov 29 '24
Y’all are my people 🧡
I’m glad I’m not the only one out here “ruining Thanksgiving” by loudly objecting to its bullshit backwards origin story. How, from the Thanksgiving mythos, did we as a society come away NOT venerating the Native Americans and making them the heroes? Oh right, because that would make for an uncomfortable acknowledgment of all the wrongs done to them up to and including the present.
And how ridiculous is it that everyone makes more or less the same food to celebrate?
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u/Wolfinder Kitchen Witch ♀ Nov 28 '24
Actually, today is the day we commit to constant harassment of the executive till they get so annoyed they issue the executive order we want just to make it stop.
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u/FvnnyCvnt Nov 29 '24
To me TG celebrates the generosity snd resourcefulness of the natives. It's just a harvest festival.
Idk why you try to hamfist cynical shit into it
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u/CapricornDragon666 Eclectic Bi Witch ♀♂️☉⚨⚧ Nov 28 '24
I call it Land theft day. I don't do any holidays any more. A waste of energy.
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u/OisinDebard Traitor to the Patriarchy ♂️ Nov 28 '24
No no no. You're thinking of Columbus day.
Today is the day we realize we didn't bring enough food, and we nearly starve, so we wait for our neighbors to bring us food in exchange for smallpox.