>>>Secondly, as I had mentioned before, mostly now Thanksgiving is a crass commercialization and has little or no relation to its original Christian-based meaning. I personally think this is a shame but it is what it is.
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>>So the thanksgiving is a traditional Christian-based practice. I just remember a
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>See, I don't know why people are telling you this. But, if I remember correctly, Thanksgiving is a celebration of the Pilgrims making peace with the Indians.

Bob,

I believe the fellow's name was Governor Bradford and they settled in Virginia in the early 1600's. During their first winter about one half of the original 40 settlers perished as a result of not having enough food - malnutrition, disease as a result of malnutrition, etc. The following year they learned about the fish & grain planting thing from the indians and also very importantly they switched from a communal system (like communisim where everyone owned everything - with the same dismal failures of modern communism) and gave everyone their own plot of land, unleashing market forces. From that point forward they prospered. It was actually in the second year if I remember that they indeed had the first Thanksgiving and it was a Christian event. Remember, these folks came here from England, via Hollad (?) and their express intent was to hasten the return of Christ by building a New Jerusalem & City of God.

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>It also is traditionally a time to be 'Thankful' for the things (harvest) that you have.

Indeed it is. This is, for example, the time the Jewish peoples celebrate the Succoth or Booths where they live in a booth for a week and it also coincides with the Feast of Tabernacles or ingathering. The harvest season or ingathering is celebrated all around the world.


>Also, if it is 'to God' where you say Christian... Er... you do realize that Jews also believe in God too, and several other non-Christian religions believe in God or a greater being. (not wanting to start the God discussion.)

To say that something is white does not automatically presume everything else is black. That's a logical error. Remember, in this case the Christian God (from the Christian pov) is exactly the same as the Jewish God. But you're right, this kind of discussion, while enjoyable to some isn't within the pervue of the UT so we ought to be willing to accept that others have different points of view, eh? *s*

Best regards,

DD