Unit 2: No Thanks, No Giving (1ère Générale)

Reconsidering the Myth (Part 1)

The document under study is a video about the evolution of how people have celebrated Thanksgiving, published by History Channel in November 2012. We have learned that the first Thanksgiving was in 1621 when the Pilgrims invited the Native Americans to share a meal together to celebrate their first abundant harvest. At that time, they killed 5 deer and ate their meat called venison, raw cranberries. It is interesting to note that at the time, they did not have turkey, mashed potatoes or even pumpkin pie. We heard that this event was not repeated every year. However, on November 26^th, 1789 President George Washington organized the first official Thanksgiving. Nevertheless, it was not repeated every year as well. Then, in the 19^th century, Sarah Josepha Hale protested for 30 years for Thanksgiving to become a national holiday. In fact, she was inspired by reading Pilgrims’ diaries. Her goal was to recreate and nurture this tradition. Moreover, she created recipes to reinforce the tradition. It was only in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving official to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November. However, President Franklin D. Roosevelt fixed it on the fourth Thursday of November in the 1940s.

One last funny tradition was put in place by President George H.W. Bush organized an official pardon ceremony for a turkey in 1989 which would not be eaten but sent into a farm for the rest of its life. This tradition was pursued by every president after him in the White House.

To conclude, the goal of this video is to maintain the myth of the festival, to teach people about the story of thanksgiving and to show the misconceptions people had about this festival.

Homework: Learn the lesson.