You shouldn’t feel bad for celebrating Thanksgiving. While the holiday has faced controversy due to its past rooted in trauma and colonialism, what it represents today sends an important message about family and getting together to everyone who celebrates.

Most know that Thanksgiving doesn’t have the best history. While it seemed to start out fine, with the pilgrims and natives spending a day united, working together and teaching each other useful skills. The glorified  image with everyone sitting together and eating food, not as pilgrims and natives, but as humans helping out humans. That was until a mix of broken treaties, manifest destiny, raids and good old racism broke down the relationship between them, leading to many wars and rebellions between the colonists and natives. All of it leading to one of the most, if not the most, disgusting, horrible events in American history.

With Thanksgiving being seeped in such atrocious behavior, why do we still celebrate it? The way I see it, this is a day to reclaim. If we only focus on the bad of the past, will the blood ever go away? No. The crimes committed against the indigenous nations were inexcusable, there is no disputing that. To this day, many people are still affected by these events. If we did not like common holidays, religions or ideas because of their history, then we wouldn’t be celebrating anything. Nothing is free from blood, mortality itself is built on the blood of the innocent who suffer.

There is a balance when it comes to remembering the bad aspects of human nature but cutting out a staple holiday, which has significantly evolved over the years, feels just as bad as sweeping the horrors under the rug and forgetting about it. There are ways to celebrate without glorifying the pilgrims and without ignoring the pain experienced by the indigenous nations. By countering the pain with gratitude, being thankful for the little things in our personal lives and honoring those who suffered in the wake of our young country, Thanksgiving takes on a whole new meaning.

Thanksgiving is a time to create new traditions with your loved ones. To quote an article from Holiday Smart, “To truly embrace Thanksgiving as a celebration of gratitude, I’ve been experimenting with new traditions that feel less tied to outdated narratives and more in sync with the values of mindfulness, joy, and connection.”.

So please, this Thanksgiving, go out there to the world, spend it with the people who you care for and love, make new traditions that will be passed down to your loved ones and be happy. Just be mindful of the history and find ways to honor those from this holiday’s tumultuous past.