Different Views of Thanksgiving

In my household, when the holidays come, the usual family members plus a friend or two gather. We have three generations at the table: two female 80-year-olds, some 50-year-olds and the millennials. Only one of us is a Trump supporter. This is, after all, a family of professionals in a Northeastern coastal city.

Every culture has its harvest festival, but the distinctly North American tradition of Thanksgiving is wrapped up in myths of national origin. In both Canada and the United States, the annual meals became institutionalized in the mid-19th century as two young countries sought to foster both a sense of national pride and identity.