Thanksgiving: celebration & controversy
27th November 2025 is Thanksgiving in the US followed by Black Friday. Thanksgiving is not marked in the UK but latterly Black Friday is.
Of course Britain has thanksgiving festivals, usually in September to mark the harvest. The US festival is partly about this but it is also a political occasion designed to mark the founding of what is now imperial America by settlers. The problem with that of course was that America already existed before that event and had an indigenous population. In that context it is not settlers but colonisers that can be spoken of.
England had a similarly controversial Thanksgiving on May 29th. It dated from the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and was designed to celebrate the re-appearance of King Charles, albeit his son. It was a politically disputed event and celebrated more in some years than others, depending on how popular the monarchy was. Even so it was celebrated because a feast day is preferable to a non-feast day. Unless of course you are an American Indian where the context remains very different
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