Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday of many Americans… Today we’ll take a look at the roots of this annual observance.
In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged 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.
Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists who arrived in the new country aboard the Mayflower remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring.
In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, and were helped Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe. He taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants.
In November 1621, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving” – the festival lasted for three days.
At it’s core, Thanksgiving was intended to be days of fasting during difficult or pivotal moments and days of feasting and celebration to thank God in times of plenty.