Should Pagans Celebrate Thanksgiving?

According to Patti Wigington (2019), Every fall, as Thanksgiving rolls around, some people wonder if they should have some sort of religious objection to the holiday; often people feel like objecting to Thanksgiving serves as a protest of the treatment of Native Americans by their white ancestors. However, this celebration of giving thanks isn't a religious holiday at all, it's a secular one.

To many people, rather than the whitewashed version of happy pilgrims sitting around with their Native friends eating corn cobs, Thanksgiving represents oppression, greed, and cultural annihilation of Native Americans. If you consider Thanksgiving a celebration of ongoing genocide, it's pretty hard to feel good about chowing down on your turkey and cranberry sauce.

Since Thanksgiving isn't a religious observation — it's not a Christian holiday, for example — many Pagans don't see it as objectionable from a spiritual perspective. In fact, the observation of Columbus Day is a lot more troubling to many people than the Thanksgiving celebration. Also, keep in mind that cultures around the world celebrate their gratitude for the harvest with different holidays, they simply don't have it tied into a day that represents colonization" (Wigington, 2019).

Source: Wigington, Patti. (2019, August 20). Pagans and Thanksgiving. Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/pagans-and-thanksgiving-2562058

What are your beliefs about Pagans and others celebrating Thanksgiving? Does the history surrounding Thanksgiving make a difference?