To be annoyed by Thanksgiving in the UK?

[talomon]

Is it me or Thanksgiving is becoming quite widespread in the UK?

I studied in the states and live in central London, so maybe I am exposed to American people more than most, but I still feel many of my Brit and French friends and acquittances have started hosting Thanksgiving and treating it like a major holiday. Ten years ago it was quite obscure.

I mean I get that it's a nice occasion, and the food spread looks nice especially for social media, but still I am not sure I like it.

YANBU = Our culture is becoming to Americanized
YABU = It's a great holiday to celebrate

DiL is from the US. She brought her thanksgiving tradition into our family, and in return has joined in with our family traditions. One of the great joys of one’s kids growing up and pairing off is how much their partners enrich our family.

Having a Thanksgiving dinner with American friends or family would be fine.

Having a Thanksgiving dinner when no-one is American is weird.

I don't know anyone who celebrates it, but the concept of Black Friday does annoy me. I get that they want to get rid of all the old unsold stock, but call it the pre-xmas sales, winter sales, December sale...

I don't know anyone who celebrates it here, not even me and I grew up there!

The only Thanksgiving import I see, is the explosion of Black Friday commercial hype. I ignore it like any other intrusive unwanted advertising.

It’s a strange thing to say that you are “annoyed” by Thanksgiving in the UK. If people want to celebrate it, let them. You don’t have to. Why does it annoy you? Does Diwali annoy you? Does St Patrick’s Day annoy you? Does it annoy you when non-Chinese people celebrate the lunar new year? Or, like many MNers, is your contempt for “foreign” things reserved only for all things American?

Do Catholics celebrate November 5th?

I did notice when I was a kid attending RC primary school that the ‘Bonfire Night’ and fireworks tended to be diplomatically moved to Halloween and All Saints day. 😂

When I lived in the States, I’d wish Americans a “Happy Coloniser Day” 😏

Only people I've ever heard of celebrating Thanksgiving in the UK are Americans living here.

MN does love to get its knickers in a twist over encroaching Americanisations though, real or perceived.

How dare you like your DIL!? That is heresy on Mumsnet.

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I love all four of my daughters-in-law. They are wonderful women, each of whom loves one of my sons as much as I do. I can’t help it. Should I seek counselling?

I'm not sure that you entirely understand mumsnet. It's a discussion forum where people can say what they think. I'm sure you know weird is not a synonym for annoyed. I think it's weird, it's not annoying.
Also the Canadian one how don't understand that this refers to Thanksgiving? Because I do not see how you can be confused. And yet you've written that Thanksgiving is Canadian as well. Yes, it is. It's in October. That seems to me like a better date. Why not pick that one if you're looking for a food based autumn celebrate to adopt?

Why would you be annoyed by somebody doing something you don't do?

Thanksgiving is more than a harvest festival. It has deep political roots.

It was originally an idea of George Washington's to have a national thanksgiving holiday. After Washington it fell by the wayside somewhat, until it was revived by Abraham Lincoln, who saw it as a potentially unifying national holiday after the damage done to the body politic during the run up to the Civil War and the war itself.

It was declared a paid holiday back in 1885 or thereabouts, but it was only in 1942 that it was established as a specific and immovable holiday that is always held on the last Thursday of November.

Columbus Day is considered the problematic holiday in the US, not Thanksgiving.

Columbus Day has had its name changed to Indigenous People's day in some states.

It was initially opposed by anti immigrant groups and anti Catholic groups who thought the US should be an overtly protestant state. Lately, it has been opposed by native American groups in grounds that it glorifies genocide.

I know 8 families who celebrate Thanksgiving, but all of them have at least one American ex-pat or have spent significant amounts of time there. I think British people don't understand that for many American families, Thanksgiving is actually a bigger family holiday than Christmas. My DH didn't understand that we have a huge extended family dinner at Thanksgiving, but we only have nibbles and buffet food at Christmas.

@Onnabugeisha

What gratuitously offensive greeting did you offer Americans on Columbus Day?

Thanksgiving is problematic as well to many Native Americans. Its not just Columbus Day. And it’s not just the Native Americans I personally know of the Allegheny and Zuni tribes. It is easy to verify that many view it as a Day of National Mourning, including the Wampanoag tribe local to Plymouth MA:

“While not all Native Americans are a monolith who have the same relationship with the modern Thanksgiving holiday—as some do choose to celebrate it or use it as an opportunity to spend time with family—many across the country mark it as a National Day of Mourning.

Peters explains this is because the date of which 102 Pilgrims arrived to New England marks the beginning of the "colonial period," one which is "literally etched in stone on the Plymouth waterfall," the national monument dedicated to the arrival of the Pilgrims.

To mark the day, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe will head to a spot near Plymouth Rock to perform ceremonies they choose to keep private, but is a time they can spend "time acknowledging the sacrifices of our ancestors, and the injustices that continue to this day throughout Indian country."
www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/what-native-americans-want-you-to-know-about-thanksgiving-this-holiday/ar-AA14vXeg

Pretty much the same one. Personally I think those holidays are offensive.

It didn't make sense because both countries are equally part of British history, so I was trying desperately to make some sense of your post.

I'm going to really hope you aren't British.

The problem is that the people you tried to be rude to were probably too polite to point out that their families had only been in the country for a 100 years. And that it had been the British that were the colonisers.

Still the jubilee was nice this year.

A nice holiday, celebrating a royal family that is in no way problematic.

I am British. But what is offensive is celebrating colonisation and genocide- especially in this day and age.

Dont forget most of the colonisation of the US and genocide of the Native Americans happened after 1776. So we British started 13 colonies (now 13 states), but it was the Americans that slaughtered their way across the continent all on their own.

And we don’t celebrate colonisation in the U.K. We recognise the evil of it. We don’t dress it up as a “family friendly holiday” or “harvest celebration”. We don’t have a Britannia Rules holiday where we all get together and give thanks for the Empire and it’s light of civilisation.

Americans celebrate this shit, and I think it’s wrong and offensive to do so. I don’t care if the American in question is an immigrant like I was there, you still have a choice what bits of American culture you want to participate in.

Thanksgiving, nope, refused to celebrate it and not going to “be kind” to those who do.

Celebrating the 70yr reign of the first Queen to actively de-colonise you mean.

*And we don’t celebrate colonisation in the U.K. We recognise the evil of it. We don’t dress it up as a “family friendly holiday” or “harvest celebration”. We don’t have a Britannia Rules holiday where we all get together and give thanks for the Empire and it’s light of civilisation.&

Is this a joke? So many British people still speak about the Empire in glowing terms. But all you can see is Brits = decolonising goodies, Americans = baddies.

What an airhead you sound.