Why some Americans don’t celebrate Thanksgiving

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Thanksgiving is considered by some to be a “national day of mourning” Like Columbus Day, the holiday is viewed by many to be a celebration of the conquest of Native Americans by colonists, or an embellished narrative of “Pilgrims and Natives looking past their differences” to break bread. “One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting,” he wrote. “America’s First Thanksgiving was actually celebrated in Virginia in 1619,” the senator told the president in a letter, referring to a religious ceremony that English settlers held when they arrived in Berkeley Plantation near Richmond. “Please issue an appropriate correction.” “You are quite right,” came the reply from Mr Kennedy’s special assistant, the historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. “I can only plead unconquerable New England bias on the part of the White House staff.” Not everyone liked the idea of a national Thanksgiving holiday In 1789, President George Washington proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving, asking Americans to gather on the last Thursday of November to give thanks for the establishment of “a form of government for their safety and happiness”.