Gripe about US history myths taught early on

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

And Jesus wasn't born on December 25 (really, he wasn't).

I don't think anyone really claims that he was. And, I don't think that it is in our history books. It is when we celebrate his birth.

Tons of people think that. I've recently heard a teacher in a Christian preschool tell it to the students. She absolutely believed it, and she is not fundamentalist or anything like that. Like many Christians, she just thought it was a fact.

[Anonymous]

http://www.pilgrimhallmuseum.org/ap_first_thanksgiving.htm

Actually, the First Thanksgiving is not a myth. The terminology may be different, but there is actually a primary resource that says there was.

[Anonymous]

Tons of people think that. I've recently heard a teacher in a Christian preschool tell it to the students. She absolutely believed it, and she is not fundamentalist or anything like that. Like many Christians, she just thought it was a fact.

Well, the history books do not say it.

[Anonymous]

consider it cultural education, rather than a pure history lesson. If your kid did not know about George Washington's cherry tree, it would be weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://www.pilgrimhallmuseum.org/ap_first_thanksgiving.htm

Actually, the First Thanksgiving is not a myth. The terminology may be different, but there is actually a primary resource that says there was.

No, it doesn't. A primary documents which descibed A feast was dug up in order to establish the holiday. The feast was not a first anything - it was just a feast, and someone happened to mention it in writing, so it was used, many years after the fact, to create the myth of the "first" thanksgiving. In reality, the fall feast was something people were celebrating annually before anyone had heard of the pilgims - it was a harvest holiday and holdover from many ancient religions. The first thanksgiving myth was just a way to officially appropriate the holiday for propaganda purposes.

[Anonymous]

No, it doesn't. A primary documents which descibed A feast was dug up in order to establish the holiday. The feast was not a first anything - it was just a feast, and someone happened to mention it in writing, so it was used, many years after the fact, to create the myth of the "first" thanksgiving. In reality, the fall feast was something people were celebrating annually before anyone had heard of the pilgims - it was a harvest holiday and holdover from many ancient religions. The first thanksgiving myth was just a way to officially appropriate the holiday for propaganda purposes.

You really don't make your point: There was a feast of Thanksgiving. It was the first one in the New World by Europeans.

What do you want -a statement by the Pilgrims that they are establishing a national holiday for a nation that did not then exist?
Thanksgiving is in honor of that first "feast". It was a feast of thanks. Native Americans were included. What negates any of this? It is not a myth.