Thanksgiving is an combination of many different traditions and later additions, including ancient Native American and British Harvest Festivals with New England Puritan religious aspects.
The story actually begins in 1614 when a group of English explorers sailed back to England with a ship full of Patuxet Native Americans bound for slavery and having left behind a smallpox plague which virtually wiped the rest. When the Pilgrims of the “first” Thanksgiving arrived in the Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who taught them to grow crops and fish. He also negotiated the peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. He may have later been poisoned by the Wampanoag.
The Harvest Festival we know of as the “first” Thanksgiving was not about family or religion, if it had been about family or religion the Pilgrims never would have invited the Native American to join them. What we think of as the “first” Thanksgiving was really a Harvest Festival, an actual "Thanksgivings" was a Puritan religious affair where everybody spent the day praying. Not all pilgrims were Puritans.
The Wampanoag had helped the Pilgrims survive their first year at the Plymouth Colony, so the approximately 50 surviving colonists invited a group of around 90 Wampanoag to the Harvest Festival honoring Squanto and the Wampanoag. This was to celebrate in part, simply having survived. The Wampanoag brought deer to the pot luck.
The Thanksgiving we learn about in school and celebrate today is based on this 3 day celebration of the Harvest that was a feast between the Pilgrims and the Native American, It occurred sometime between September 21 and November 1 in 1621. Like then, today we celebrate with a huge feast, though the menu was different.
Did you know? Mashed Potatoes were not part of the first Thanksgiving, as Irish immigrants had not yet brought them to North America. Unlike the 20 pound Thanksgiving Turkey of today, turkeys then were smaller and weighed around 8 pounds and may not have even been part of the meal. Seafood and other meats like venison and birds like pigeon probably were. Since pies were a way to preserve fruits and meat, both were probably also on the menu. Pumpkin Pie we know today is based on a 1653 French Recipe, and wasn't part of the feast, though pumpkin in some form may have been. Cranberries were used by Native Americans to treat wounds and to dye clothes, but may have been eaten in some manner. The Victorian Era brought the turkey and cranberry sauce we now know to the menu. The South viewed Thanksgiving as a New England “Yankee” celebration and did not participate, until the end of the 19th century at which time sweet potatoes and pecan pie would join the Thanksgiving menu.
Many American Thanksgiving traditions revolve around a huge meal, usually with Turkey as a centerpiece (a Roast or Prime Rib is also common). For many families, a special prayer of thanks may precede the meal or family members will simply mention something they are thankful for.
After the “first” Thanksgiving, the observance became sporadic and nearly forgotten and losing nay religious overtones until the early 1800's. The idea of the “first” Thanksgiving as we know it today came from Alexander Young, who referenced an account of the 1621 three-day festival from a letter of Edward Winslow, a senior leader of the Plymouth Colony.
According to historian George Willison, the pilgrims did not even land at Plymouth Rock, this story was introduced a century after the Mayflower actually made landfall at Provincetown.
El Paso Texas area residents claim the first Thanksgiving in America which took place in little San Elizario, (near El Paso) on April 30, 1598. This Thanksgiving celebrated the arrival of the Spanish explorer Juan De Oñate on the banks of the Rio Grande. Juan De Oñate is said to have held a Thanksgiving festival after having lead hundreds of settlers on a 350-mile long trek across the Mexican desert. The modern event was first observed in April 1989.
In Virginia, the Berkeley Plantation on the James River also claims the first Thanksgiving in America which was held on December 4th, 1619. In their view it's not the Mayflower that should be remembered, it's their ship the Margaret; which brought 38 English settlers to the plantation in 1619. The settlers had apparently been ordered by the London company that sponsored the voyage to commemorate the ship's arrival with an annual day of Thanks. It wasn't until, that 1963 President Kennedy officially recognized the plantation's claim.
Lincoln was the first President to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday, This happened in 1863 when the date was set as last Thursday of November. The tradition of pardoning Thanksgiving turkeys is often said to have began with Harry S Truman: Though evidence says John F Kennedy officially started the tradition and Abraham Lincoln is said to have started the practice when he pardoned his son’s pet turkey.
The Friday after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday because stores hope the beginning of the holiday shopping season will put them “in the black”. Black Friday has been a tradition since the 1930s. In 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt fumbled Thanksgiving, as it was currently being celebrated on the last Thursday of November, but Big Business and their Lobbyists convinced FDR to proclaim Thanksgiving to be on the fourth Thursday, rather than the last since retailers during the Great Depression were concerned consumers would not have a full month's pay to shop for Christmas.
Other Little Known Facts About Thanksgiving:
- There are actually 12 claims to where the “first” Thanksgiving took place: 2 in Texas, 2 in Florida, 1 in Maine, 2 in Virginia, and 5 in Massachusetts.
- The famous “Pilgrim and Indian” story featured in the modern Thanksgiving narrative was not initially part of earlier Thanksgiving stories due to tension between Native tribes and the colonists.
- Americans eat over 530 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving.
- Every Thanksgiving, a group of Native Americans gather at Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, MA to commemorate a National Day of Mourning.
- Thanksgiving football tradition began with Yale versus Princeton in 1876.
- In 1920, Gimbels department store in Philadelphia held the nation’s first Thanksgiving Day parade.
- Established in 1924, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade comes in second as the oldest Thanksgiving parade.
- The earliest Thanksgiving in Canada was held in 1578. Martin Frobisher held a celebration for arriving safely in Newfoundland.
- In 1879, Thanksgiving in Canada was set to November 6th, but since 1957, Thanksgiving Day has been held on the second Monday in October.
- Jewish people around the globe celebrate Sukkot, a festival of thanksgiving that lasts nine days.
- In Great Britain a Harvest Festival is observed in late September or October and special services of thanksgiving are held at local churches to honor the day.
- In southern India, people in Kerala hold a harvest festival called Onam, where good samaritans deliver food to the needy.
- Zhong Qui (Festival of the Autumn Moon) is the Chinese celebration of thanksgiving and is held on the eighth month of the Chinese calendar.
- In 1953, Swanson had an extra 260 tons of Frozen turkey, they placed it it aluminum trays with sides and sold them and the TV Dinner was born.
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