Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

[hoxlund]

no replies necessary, just want to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving

[aviationwiz]

Happy Thanksgiving Anyway!

[jase]

Forgive me for sounding stupid here, but it's something I've often wondered about. What exactly is thanksgiving? For a long time I thought it was just an American term for Christmas but that obviously isn't the case since that's a month away. We don't celebrate thanksgiving here in the UK and I'm confused

[hoxlund]

its too celebrate our independence from england, as we came over and started a new country

and also cause we stole land from the real americans, the Native Indians, which i am not proud we did

its kind of a hypacritical holiday

[jase]

OK, that's cleared that up, but I thought you guys had the 4th of July for that??

As for hypocritical, most people aren't religious in any way yet we still celebrate Christmas (myself included). How's that for hypocrisy!!! lol

[aviationwiz]

On the 4th of July is when we claimed our independence from England. Thansgiving is when we first came to the new world.

[cfitz]

Hoxlund and Aviationwiz, back to grade school for you! I think the tryptophan is getting to you and affecting your recall... Thanksgiving has nothing to do with independence from England, nor does it have anything to do with the first European settlers arriving in America. The Pilgrims were not the first European settlers to arrive in America, not by a long shot. And, as even Jase knows, we have the 4'th of July for celebrating independence from England. (Gee Jase, it feels weird and somewhat rude to be talking about celebrating independence from your country, as if we are saying "good riddance" to you. But, that is ancient history, and we've been good allies for a long time, so I assume there are no hard feelings... )

Anyway, the American holiday Thanksgiving traces its origins back to the Pilgrims who settled in Massachusetts and celebrated a good harvest that was achieved with the help of Native Americans. The story has been gussied up to gloss over the ugliness associated with colonization, but there is truth in it as well. Here are a couple of more "traditional" takes on it:

http://www.holidays.net/thanksgiving/pilgrims.htm
http://wilstar.com/holidays/thankstr.htm

And here is a little counterpoint from the Native American point of view:

http://www.2020tech.com/thanks/temp.html

Although there is still a lot of Pilgrim/Indian/"brave settlers taming the savage new world" imagery associated with Thanksgiving, one need not feel hypocritical celebrating Thanksgiving. Stripped of the historical imagery, it is really about getting together with family and friends, and giving thanks for the blessings in our lives. We aren't celebrating the Pilgrims, their coming to America, meeting Indians, etc. We are simply celebrating the blessings in our lives. This aspect of the holiday could be celebrated by anyone throughout the world.

Of course, one could also argue that the real point of the holiday, as practiced by many Americans, is to stuff oneself like a pig, lazily loll around watching football (American style) games, and splurge on wild shopping orgies the following day. So it really ends up celebrating sloth and excessive consumption. To me personally, that would be the most potentially hypocritical part of the holiday.

I don't want to be a Grinch (as I mix my holiday metaphors) so allow me to conclude by also saying:

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

That includes people throughout the world who have blessings for which they can be thankful.

cfitz

[tyronemoss]

wow you be taking your time with your post.. anyways happy thanks giving to all

[dhc014]

I can't top cfitz

Happy Thanksgiving

[coolestnitish]

I swear cfitz has a couple of paragraphs on any topic in the world!!! Awesome knowledge man!!
As we are on the topic, Canada celebrates Thanksgiving on October 14th. Wierd eh? I don't know why there are different dates. Anyways, happy turkying everyone. lol.
And lets thank the moderators and administrators of CDRlabs who have put their time and effort to make this an excellent community.

[eliminator]

Happy Thanksgiving to All !

[jase]

Thanks for that cfitz, I think I understand now. It's a bit like the harvest festivals celebrated by Christians here, but taken a few steps further and with more meaning attached by the looks of things.

Of course, one could also argue that the real point of the holiday, as practiced by many Americans, is to stuff oneself like a pig, lazily loll around watching football (American style) games, and splurge on wild shopping orgies the following day. So it really ends up celebrating sloth and excessive consumption.

Hmmmm, sounds good to me. Think I'll take next year's Thanksgiving off and join you pigging out, sounds like my kind of holiday lol. Happy Thanksgiving

Gee Jase, it feels weird and somewhat rude to be talking about celebrating independence from your country, as if we are saying "good riddance" to you. But, that is ancient history, and we've been good allies for a long time, so I assume there are no hard feelings...

No hard feelings here. I could go on for ages about how evil Britain has been in the past (I do cringe a little when I hear Brits celebrating the Empire and all that stuff), but as you say it's all ancient history now, not much you or I can do about all that now!

[Matt]

Dictionary.com

2. A public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness; also, a day set apart for religious services, specially to acknowledge the goodness of God, either in any remarkable deliverance from calamities or danger, or in the ordinary dispensation of his bounties.

Note: In the United States it is now customary for the President by proclamation to appoint annually a day (usually the last Thursday in November) of thanksgiving and praise to God for the mercies of the past year. This is an extension of the custom long prevailing in several States in which an annual Thanksgiving day has been appointed by proclamation of the governor.

[Matt]

And while I'm being off-topic, what on earth is this doing in CD-RW forum, wouldn't this be better in OT forum?

[TCAS]

Hoppy Thanksgiving to every one specially to Ian, Hoxlund, Cfits,Eliminator and Jase which I have happen to know little more.

[hoxlund]

well im back from the land of hell, i just got off work from best buy, now that is an experience everyone has to at least see once, fucing mad house

besides I asked ian to close this thread

[dhc014]

Believe-you-me I experienced it. Maybe not from your perspective, but I was in the line and in the crowd. I was kind of disappointed that there were so few of the Norcent drives in stock. I think there were only about 40 or so. Oh well, I ended up just buying a Memorex 48Maxx for $80 and it is now a LTR-52246S