How Thanksgiving Got Its Name

Thanksgiving is an opportunity for families to come together and text anyone not present about how bored they are, for cousins to spill milk and cry about it, for British uncles to feign turducken apathy and for aunts to fall off their gluten-free bandwagons. Everyone eats too much food, complains about it, swears off carbs forever, then gets a group-second-wind around 11 PM and eats too much again.

But really, the holiday is about giving thanks.

People like Thanksgiving because it’s not as consumer driven as the holidays that follow — it’s not corrupted by over-eager drugstores who start selling Valentine’s Day paraphernalia like, now. And for all of the moaning that comes with familial politics, everyone secretly enjoys sitting around that weirdly-early dinner table while grandma & co. rattle off why they’re glad to have passed their genes on to the surrounding team members.

It’s just awkward that people think the idea behind the holiday came before the holiday’s name. In a new Man Repeller Story Book, we explain how Thanksgiving actually got its name. See you at the corner of marshmallow yams.