For many decades, several American holidays have faced backlash for their controversial origin stories and dark histories. Such thinking is not only counterproductive but fundamentally misunderstands the reason people celebrate holidays, which is to honor traditions and values, not endorse historical wrongdoings.
The prime example of a holiday that has been put in the spotlight for this reason is Thanksgiving, criticized for its erasure of Native American history and glorification of colonialism, which has fueled efforts to rebrand, and even remove entirely, the traditions and its place in American culture.
To some extent, the criticism is valid. Thanksgiving, as well as other holidays, are rooted in historical injustice. However, that is no reason to label Thanksgiving as immoral, much less to get rid of it. The idea that holidays with dark origin stories should not be celebrated is logically flawed, for two main reasons.
First, secular holidays are not celebrated for their origins, but for cultural significance. Namely, Halloween is one of the most loved and timeless holidays in American culture, known for activities like costume parties, trick-or-treating and scary movies. The holiday’s origin story, however, is quite different. Halloween stems from an ancient Celtic holiday called Samhain, celebrating the end of the harvest season, and a time when spirits cross into the living world. Additionally, Catholic tradition established Halloween as the night before All Hallows’ Day, a day to honor saints. While Halloween does have a deeper religious meaning, most people in the U.S. who celebrate it are not doing so for the origins, but simply enjoying it as it stands in current American culture. Thanksgiving works the same way. While it is true that its origins have messy links to the removal of Native Americans, today the holiday celebrates gratitude and togetherness. Thanksgiving itself was proclaimed a holiday in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln, for this exact reason, to foster unity during the Civil War. This is why most people who observe Thanksgiving do so not to celebrate genocide, but to be grateful, with surveys showing that close to 70% of Americans say Thanksgiving dinner involves a prayer, blessing or sharing things they are grateful for, according to Pew Research Center. Secular holidays like Thanksgiving are celebrated simply for their place in American culture now.
Second, if a bad origin story ruined something forever, people would end up rejecting almost everything. The creation of the U.S., Canada, South Africa and Australia all involved violence, displacement and racism. Yet that does not change the fact that today they are all legitimate and democratic nations. Countries are not called immoral because of their origins, but for what they stand for today. In healthcare, the earliest disease-prevention tests were non-consensually conducted on slaves and prisoners, yet today, vaccines save millions. People do not reject vaccines because of their origins, but continue to use them under today’s improved ethical standards. The list continues with numerous systems that people use today without even thinking about their dark origins.
It is okay to celebrate holidays with unfortunate origins behind them because the holidays that fall in that category are celebrated for where they stand today in our modern culture. It is unfair to criticize a holiday like Thanksgiving — one that now revolves around gratitude and community — because of a backstory that nobody celebrates it for anyways. Rejecting something because of its past is unreasonable because so many aspects of modern life have dark histories. Nobody celebrates holidays to condone historical violence, but simply because holidays have a place in the culture we love.
