Thanksgiving

Now just hold on here a second. I may not be an American but i like capitalism just as much as they do, so I bid $30 for Manhattan Island. If the hurricanes and earthquakes strike too much I will likely lose money, but I am willing to take the chance just to prove how nice I am.

"At the time, advertising goods for Christmas before Thanksgiving was considered inappropriate. Fred Lazarus, Jr., founder of the Federated Department Stores (later Macy's), is credited with convincing Roosevelt to push Thanksgiving back a week to expand the shopping season."

Thanksgiving is when retailers give thanks for being saved from bankruptcy by the start of the Christmas season when hoards of shoppers frantically engage in an orgy of spending, trying to outdo each other in selecting the most tasteless gifts that nobody needs or wants. Cynic? Who? Me?

Now THERE is the biggest loss.

So before the "religious overtones" were introduced people were simply ploughing the fields and scattering the good seeds on the land and God's almighty hand had nothing to do with it.

Not quite.

Virtually every harvest festival had religious overtones. Whether you were thanking the Green Man while toasting with John Barleycorn or offering up praises to the Lord depends on what century the festival was happening.

Because a big part of farming is admitting that you're at the mercy of the weather and other elements that you can't control (vermin infestation, blights, etc) so when you get a harvest you thank whichever power you believe in that you'll have food in the coming winter. At least that's how it was traditionally - I'm not sure how atheist farmers do it.

Goodgulf

And I presumed that it was on e-bay and the auction had a fixed end point

Thanksgiving makes about as much sense as Guy Fawkes Day. So there!

I always felt that this was a true celebration of human goodness.
The inquisitive Europeans and the native Americans coming together and bonding as only humans can.
Of course the rest is a catalogue of infestation, war and domination.
But, there are very few countries that can take the moral high ground and the Americans at least are prepared to accept that, through no fault of there own, their forefathers were extreme in their actions.
Being British, I certainly can't preach to anyone but I still feel that my ancestors introduced a modicum of progression and improvement to the various countries we arbitrarily invaded and consequently populated.
Thankfully, most have now regained their Independence and those that remain within the Commonwealth only benefit from their association with Great Britain.
The fact that the Americans are still prepared to celebrate that initial welcoming is hope for us all and should be met with a warm smile rather than a dark scowl.