Giving thanks on the fourth Thursday of November has been a tradition for many people around the world for two centuries now.
Families gather around a large table to eat a great feast and talk about what they will buy on Black Friday. Where and why did this all begin? Who were the first to have such a feast? The history of Thanksgiving is not something that comes up at the table while everyone is feasting. The story of the first colonists settling in “the new world” in the 1600s is not as fun and happy as children are taught growing up.
According to the History channel website, in September of 1620, the Mayflower set out on a voyage to find a new world. The ship held over 100 passengers, which were families from England looking for a place to have religious freedom. Traveling for over two months was not the easiest, but they finally crossed the Massachusetts Bay and started to establish the village known as Plymouth.
That first winter was not easy for the pilgrims at all. Many of them were very sick, so they didn’t even get off of the ship. History channel says that only half of the original passengers made it. In March of 1621, the rest of the settlers moved onto the shore. They were surprised to see an Abenaki Indian that greeted them in English. The next time the friendly Indian visited, he brought a friend, Squanto.
Squanto has a story of his own. He was a member of the Pawtuxet tribe, and he was kidnapped to become a slave. He was able to escape and make it back to his homeland just in time to greet the pilgrims. Squanto began to teach the people how to harvest and hunt. The rest of the spring and summer was very a plentiful time for the pilgrims.
In November of 1621, the Governor of Plymouth, William Bradford, decided to treat everyone to a feast to celebrate their bountiful harvest. This included the local Indian tribes as well. The celebration lasted for three days.
Nowadays, there is turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, but History channel says that it can be assumed that they had a little bit of a different menu. The pilgrims most likely had cooked goose, deer, corn and lobster. The sugar supply was short at the time, so there were no cakes or pies for this celebration.
By 1777, there were several days where people gave thanks for many reasons, such as another great harvest, the ending of a drought or the winning of a battle. Also in that year, the Continental Congress decided to have a national day of giving thanks in honor of the 13 colonies’ victory over the British. Abraham Lincoln finally declared a specific day for everyone to participate in 1863 four months after the victory at Gettysburg. Lincoln made the fourth Thursday of every November Thanksgiving day.
By the 20th century, Thanksgiving had become just like any other holiday that people enjoyed and looked forward to because it was a day off from work. In the 1920s, the National Football League was formed, and the Detroit Lions came up with the idea of having a Thanksgiving Day game to help their attendance at their games. Also, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade started in 1924, and the department stores began to take advantage of everyone’s day off as well.
Now that the story of the first Thanksgiving has been told, there is only one more thing to do – have a happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the time with loved ones, shopping and football.
For more information about the history of thanksgiving and the pilgrims, visit www.history.com.
