欧美人文风情第194篇:感恩节其实是个血腥节日?!

 And I'm thankful for my kindergarten class who made these wonderful crafts to celebrate Thanksgiving. 我很感谢我在幼稚园的班级做了这些美丽作品来庆祝感恩节。

After the Native Americans helped the Pilgrims survive their first winter in America,  印地安人帮助清教徒撑过他们在美国的第一个寒冬后，

the Puritans invited them to share the first Thanksgiving. 清教徒邀他们共度首个感恩节。

Aww, these are adorably...wrong. 啊，这些真是...大错特错得可爱啊。

A five-year-old made that. 一个五岁小孩写的。

Based off of the lies that you taught them. 根据你教他们的谎言。

Excuse me? 不好意思？

Oh, it's not your fault! These are full of half-truths and historical propaganda. 噢，这不是你的错!历史课本充满半真半假事实和历史的宣传。

I thought the Native Americans and the Pilgrims were, like, besties, or whatever. 我以为印地安人和清教徒就像，好麻吉还是什么的。

At best, the Pilgrims and Wampanoags could be described as "political allies."  充其量，清教徒和 Wampanoags 族人只能被形容成“政治盟友”。

By the time the Pilgrims showed up,  清教徒出现时，

not only were two-thirds of the Massachusetts tribes completely wiped out by European slave owners and diseases,  不只有三分之二的麻州部落被欧洲奴隶主和疾病完全摧毁，

the Pilgrims were constantly at war with the indigenous¹ people and routinely tortured them. 清教徒还不断和原住民交战，且经常折磨他们。

But what about Squanto, the Native American who learned English to help out the Pilgrims? 但史广多呢，那个学英文来帮助清教徒脱困的印地安人？

He was actually a slave that was hauled off to Europe,  他其实是个被带去欧洲的奴隶，

and then he learned English so that he could escape. 然后他学英文好让自己能逃跑。

But they did celebrate it every year, right? 但他们确实每年庆祝感恩节，对吧？

Not exactly. The next one was 16 years later and, unfortunately, 不完全正确。下一个感恩节是在十六年后，而且不幸地是，

it was because the Puritans were celebrating the massacre² of the Piqua tribe.  那是因为清教徒在庆祝 Piqua 部落大屠杀。

Back then, Thanksgiving was also for families—specifically, murdering them. 那时，感恩节也是和家族有关——特别是去谋杀他们。

Okay! We get it! History's awful, the Puritans were terrible,  好!我们懂了!历史很糟、清教徒很可怕，

and now we have to let our children know that the holiday started with tons of killings³. Happy? 现在我们得让我们的孩子了解这节日是从一堆打打杀杀开始的。满意了吗？

Well, we actually have just about everything wrong with the Thanksgiving myth.  这个嘛，我们其实几乎完全搞错了感恩节的传说。

Definitely didn't wear these buckle⁴ hats. Didn't land on Plymouth Rock.  肯定没有戴这些钮扣帽子。没有在普里茅斯岩登陆。

And as for that turkey... 至于那只火鸡嘛...

Oh no, not the turkey... 噢不，不要是火鸡啊...

More like venison, fowl⁵, and eel⁶. 比较像是吃鹿肉、野禽还有鳗鱼。

Oh!!! 噢!!!

Who cares about how this stupid holiday got started anyway? 反正谁在意这蠢节日是怎么开始的啦？

Exactly! In George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation,  没错!在乔治·华盛顿 1789 年的感恩节宣告里，

the settlers aren't mentioned,not even once.  移民们根本没被提到，连一次都没有。

Thanksgiving wasn't celebrated⁷ nationwide until 1863 感恩节到 1863 年才被举国庆祝，

when this guy declared it a national holiday during the Civil War in order to bring the country together. 那时这家伙在内战期间宣布感恩节成为国定节日，好让整个国家团结起来。

That's why all of our foods are from the 19th century. 那就是为什么我们所有食物都是来自十九世纪的。

So Lincoln came up with the whole Indian/Pilgrim story? 所以林肯想出整个印地安人和清教徒的故事？

Nope. That myth didn't catch on till the 1900s, after we had fought and killed all the Native Americans.  不。那迷思到二十世纪才流行起来，在我们打击并杀害所有印地安人后。

And then we put it in textbooks as fact. Because...America!  然后我们才把这故事当作史实放到教科书里。因为...美国嘛!

But...the food is really good.  不过...这食物真的很美味。

And if you ignore all the terrible history like, you know, the murdering, the raping⁸, the pillaging⁹ 如果你不要理所有可怕的历史，像是，你知道，谋杀、强暴、掠夺啦

still kind of a great holiday. Mmmm! 还算是个满棒的节日。嗯嗯嗯!

So the Mayflower is a lie? 所以五月花号是个谎言？

Why do we eat cranberry¹⁰ sauce? 我们为什么要吃蔓越莓酱？

What about stuffing? 那火鸡馅料呢？

Is Black Friday really just a capitalist conspiracy¹¹ to get poor people to buy things  黑色星期五是否真的只是资本家的阴谋，让穷人们去买东西，

so we can't truly live out a populous¹² revolt? 好让穷人没办法真的执行人数众多的起义？

I am never telling you the truth ever again. 我永远不要再告诉你们真相了。

One historical narrative¹³ says that the Pilgrims were off firing their guns when the Wampanoag tribe just showed up,  一则历史故事描述，清教徒们正在开枪，在 Wampanoag 族人跑出来那时，

presumably to find out why the white folks were shooting up the place, 他们大概是要看看为什么白人在扫射那地方，

which is a question that we still ask this very day. 这是个我们如今仍在问的问题。

 

1 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

2 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

3 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

4 buckle   

n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲

参考例句：

• The two ends buckle at the back.带子两端在背后扣起来。
• She found it hard to buckle down.她很难专心做一件事情。

5 fowl   

n.家禽，鸡，禽肉

参考例句：

• Fowl is not part of a traditional brunch.禽肉不是传统的早午餐的一部分。
• Since my heart attack,I've eaten more fish and fowl and less red meat.自从我患了心脏病后，我就多吃鱼肉和禽肉，少吃红色肉类。

6 eel   

n.鳗鲡

参考例句：

• He used an eel spear to catch an eel.他用一只捕鳗叉捕鳗鱼。
• In Suzhou,there was a restaurant that specialized in eel noodles.苏州有一家饭馆，他们那里的招牌菜是鳗鱼面。

7 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

8 raping   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的现在分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• In response, Charles VI sent a punitive expedition to Brittany, raping and killing the populace. 作为报复，查理六世派军讨伐布列塔尼，奸淫杀戮平民。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The conquerors marched on, burning, killing, raping and plundering as they went. 征服者所到之处烧杀奸掠，无所不做。 来自互联网

9 pillaging   

v.抢劫，掠夺( pillage的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The rebels went looting and pillaging. 叛乱者趁火打劫，掠夺财物。
• Soldiers went on a rampage, pillaging stores and shooting. 士兵们横冲直撞，洗劫商店并且开枪射击。 来自辞典例句

10 cranberry   

n.梅果

参考例句：

• Turkey reminds me of cranberry sauce.火鸡让我想起梅果酱。
• Actually I prefer canned cranberry sauce.事实上我更喜欢罐装的梅果酱。

11 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

12 populous   

adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的

参考例句：

• London is the most populous area of Britain.伦敦是英国人口最稠密的地区。
• China is the most populous developing country in the world.中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家。

13 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。