In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared
an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first
Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of
thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn't until
1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed
a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.
Thanksgiving at Plymouth
In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left
Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers—an assortment of religious
separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and
other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the
New World. After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days,
they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended
destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower
crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now
commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.
Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists
remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and
outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original
passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the
remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from
an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English. Several days later, he returned
with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had
been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping
to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto
taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate
corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous
plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a
local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years and tragically remains
one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native
Americans.
In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest
proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory
feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including
the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first
Thanksgiving”—although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at
the time—the festival lasted for three days. While no record exists of the
historic banquet’s exact menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow wrote in
his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a “fowling” mission in
preparation for the event, and that the Wampanoag guests arrived bearing five
deer. Historians have suggested that many of the dishes were likely prepared
using traditional Native American spices and cooking methods. Because the
Pilgrims had no oven and the Mayflower’s sugar supply had dwindled by the fall
of 1621, the meal did not feature pies, cakes or other desserts, which have become
a hallmark of contemporary celebrations.
Thanksgiving Becomes an Official Holiday
Pilgrims held their second Thanksgiving celebration in
1623 to mark the end of a long drought that had threatened the year’s harvest
and prompted Governor Bradford to call for a religious fast. Days of fasting
and thanksgiving on an annual or occasional basis became common practice in
other New England settlements as well. During the American Revolution, the Continental
Congress designated one or more days of thanksgiving a year, and in 1789 George
Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the national
government of the United States; in it, he called upon Americans to express
their gratitude for the happy conclusion to the country’s war of independence
and the successful ratification of the U.S. Constitution. His successors John
Adams and James Madison also designated days of thanks during
their presidencies.
In 1817, New York became the first of several states to officially
adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day,
however, and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition.
In 1827, the noted magazine editor and prolific writer Sarah Josepha
Hale—author, among countless other things, of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a
Little Lamb”—launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national
holiday. For 36 years, she published numerous editorials and sent scores of
letters to governors, senators, presidents and other politicians. Abraham
Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil
War, in a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to “commend to his
tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in
the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” He
scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November, and it was
celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved
the holiday up a week in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great
Depression. Roosevelt’s plan, known derisively as Franksgiving, was met with
passionate opposition, and in 1941 the president reluctantly signed a bill
making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.
In many American households, the Thanksgiving celebration
has lost much of its original religious significance; instead, it now centers
on cooking and sharing a bountiful meal with family and friends. Turkey, a
Thanksgiving staple so ubiquitous it has become all but synonymous with the
holiday, may or may not have been on offer when the Pilgrims hosted the
inaugural feast in 1621. Today, however, nearly 90 percent of Americans eat the
bird—whether roasted, baked or deep-fried—on Thanksgiving, according to the
National Turkey Federation. Other traditional foods include stuffing, mashed
potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Volunteering is a common
Thanksgiving Day activity, and communities often hold food drives and host free
dinners for the less fortunate.
Parades have also become an integral part of the holiday in cities and towns
across the United States. Presented by Macy’s department store since 1924,
New York City’s Thanksgiving Day parade is the largest and most famous,
attracting some 2 to 3 million spectators along its 2.5-mile route and drawing
an enormous television audience. It typically features marching bands,
performers, elaborate floats conveying various celebrities and giant balloons
shaped like cartoon characters.
Information Courtesy of
http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving