Thanksgiving Covid Edition
Thanksgiving Covid Edition:
Due to Covid-19, Thanksgiving this year may look a little different compared to previous years. While it is important to reconnect with family and friends during the holiday season, it is even more important that we modify holiday traditions to keep friends, families, and communities healthy and safe. The CDC highly encourages celebrating virtually, as in-person celebrations should only occur between family members who are currently living in the same household.
There are several factors that can contribute to the risk of getting and spreading Covid-19 at in-person gatherings. Some of these factors include: rising levels of Covid-19 in a community, exposure to the virus during travel, the location and duration of the gathering, the number of people and crowding at the gathering, and the behaviors of attendees. Each of these are especially significant due to the possibility of a second wave of the coronavirus.
As for those who will be hosting smaller gatherings there are a variety of tips and suggestions giving by the CDC on their website indicating how to stay safe and celebrate at the same time. As always, it is crucial that everyone does their part and wear masks in a public setting, avoid close contact with people, and wash or sanitize hands. It is important that we protect our loved ones by doing our part in this global pandemic!
More about Thanksgiving can be found on the CDC website:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/holidays.html
The Real First Thanksgiving
When most people think of the First Thanksgiving, they think of the story of the Native Americans and the Pilgrims, the story of peace, love, and food, of the two groups feasting together, and the Native Americans giving up their land to the Pilgrims. This is the story that most children are taught all throughout elementary school, while they perform a fake retelling of the First Thanksgiving, with children dressing up in feather headdresses sitting alongside children in pilgrim hats. However, this is a false retelling of the actual events that occurred.
The truth is, the Native Americans -- specifically the Wampanoag tribe that the First Thanksgiving story focuses on -- had already been in contact with Europeans before the Pilgrims sailed in on the Mayflower. Most, if not all, of these experiences involved bloody battles and slave raiding by the Europeans. For this reason, the Wampanoag leader started an alliance with the Pilgrims, as he knew that the English were very powerful and would better serve to help rather than harm them. The feast the two groups had together was, in fact, peaceful and plentiful, but what occurred after this event is rarely talked about. After the original chief of the Wampanoags passed, and his son Metacomet, also known as King Philip, inherited his leadership, relations between the settlers and Native Americans became tense, as more English settlers took over Native land.
Eventually, this led to one of the deadliest early colonial wars, when a few of Metacomet’s men were executed after they killed a man named John Sassamon, who was an interpreter. This led to a series of raids by the Wampanoags, and the New England Confederation of Colonies declared war in 1675. This war lasted about 14 months, eventually ending with the murder of Metacomet. After this, all of his allies were killed or sold into the slave trade, and Metacomet himself was beheaded. His head was displayed in Plymouth for around 25 years.
The horrifying historical context of the First Thanksgiving has been ignored for far too long, and students deserve to know the truth. The white-washed, Eurocentric history displayed in our history textbooks do not show the true reality of the United States of America’s past.
Sources:
https://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-thanksgiving-2017-11
What DON is Thankful For?
I’m incredibly thankful for the people I hold close to me—my friends, my family, my teachers, my colleagues. I’m also thankful for D.O.N. in its giving students an outlet to create small, but incredibly necessary changes in their communities.
I am grateful to be working with such powerful women of color. you all inspire me to persevere & actively make this world a better place (no matter how cheesy that is). you all are amazing & i am forever thankful to have met y’all & even the privilege to be working alongside of y’all <33
I’m thankful for my family and friends. No matter how hard times get, I know they will always be there for me :)
I am grateful for hiking and the outdoors. Looking over a vista always seems to put life back into perspective and remind you of how small you are in this vast and beautiful world.
I am grateful for the people who keep me hopeful, the people who are able to dream up a better world we can work towards.
I am grateful for having a family that loves and supports me and for having true friends that I can depend on.
Grateful for family and friends! And to have loved ones who keep me moving.
I’m grateful for my privilege. I have a lot of advantages that I’m very fortunate to have, and I recognize that they benefit me in many ways.
I am grateful for the people who know, love, and support me and have continued to throughout the hard and unforeseeable conflict that 2020 has brought
I am grateful for having an education where I can learn how to think critically about the spaces I occupy and better understand the world around me