t is a basic notion that during the 1600's, accurately in the year 1621, the English settlers and the Wampanoag Indians got together and shared a fantastic fall harvest feast to celebrate the bounty from the rich earth. Today this celebratory feast is acknowledged to be one of the first Thanksgiving festivities in the early days of the colonies. While that long ago feast is supposed by a lot of people to be the first Thanksgiving celebration, it was, in fact, part of a long existing custom of celebrating the seasonal harvest and giving thanks for a good bounty of crops that would last through the long hard winter. Many Native American tribes of what would be named America, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Shawnee, Huron, Creek, Blackfoot and so many others would hold huge harvest festivals, consisting in ceremonial dances, races, games and other cheerful celebrations of gratefulness hundreds of years before the European peoples arrived. If you are like me, you are surely wondering the kind of meals served at the harvest feast. Historians, as usual, are not one hundred percent sure regarding it; however they are sure that pilgrims weren't eating pumpkin pies nor building castle towers with mashed potatoes. However, it is easy to think that the list of meat available during this period of time should surely include venison as well as several types wild poultry such as duck, goose as well as wild turkey. While there are hundreds of manuscripts describing such feast, the most detailed description of this celebration of late harvest date of 1621 and was written by a man called Edward Winslow. It is from his manuscript called "A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth" that historians have gleaned the greatest part of information about this first Thanksgiving celebration:

Although the first Thanksgiving dinners were not concentrated on the turkey; today's usual meal primarily focuses around this animal. During the 17th century, vegetables were not as important as of today, so the meal of this period of time included a lot of different meats. The many types of vegetables we take for granted today were not available to the colonists. Freezing methods did not exist; which means that the vegetable consumption was based on seasonal harvests. Because the colonists and Wampanoag tribe had no refrigeration in the 1600s, they dried a lot of their foods to preserve them. They would dry corn, wild boar hams, fish, venison, and many wild herbs.

It is usually said that in the year of 1621, in the colony of Plymouth, the English colonists and the Wampanoag Indians got together and shared a fantastic fall harvest banquet to celebrate the bounteousness from the fertile earth. Today this celebratory banquet is considered as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the early days of the colonies. While this ancient celebration is regarded as the first Thanksgiving feast; it is simply one of the numerous celebrations of the harvest season and human thankfulness for the bounties of Mother nature. Indeed, many Native American groups such as Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho, etc. celebrated the end of the harvest season many centuries before the coming of the Europeans. These festivities included ceremonial dances, races, games and other celebrations of thankfulness.Long before the discovery of the American continent and the colonization by the Europeans, Native Americans, like Apache, Navajo, Huron, Iroquois, Sioux and many others, organized festivals at the end of the harvest

We can trace this historic American Christian tradition to the year 1623. After the harvest crops were gathered in November 1623, Governor William Bradford of the 1620 Pilgrim Colony, "Plymouth Plantation" in Plymouth, Massachusetts proclaimed: "All ye Pilgrims with your wives and little ones, do gather at the Meeting House, on the hill… there to listen to the pastor, and render Thanksgiving to the Almighty God for all His blessings."

Thursday, the 19th day of February, 1795 was thus set aside by George Washington as a National Day of Thanksgiving. Many years later, on October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, by Act of Congress, an annual National Day of Thanksgiving "on the last Thursday of November, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens." In this Thanksgiving proclamation, our 16th President says that it is…

So it is that on Thanksgiving Day each year, Americans give thanks to Almighty God for all His blessings and mercies toward us throughout the year.

hanksgiving Day is a harvest festival. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. It is a holiday celebrated primarily in Canada and the United States. While perhaps religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday. The date and location of the first Thanksgiving celebration is a topic of modest contention. Though the earliest attested Thanksgiving celebration was on September 8, 1565 in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida[1][2], the traditional "first Thanksgiving" is venerated as having occurred at the site of Plymouth Plantation, in 1621. Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. Thanksgiving dinner is held on this day, usually as a gathering of family members and friends.

Most people celebrate by gathering at home with family or friends for a holiday feast. Though the holiday's origins can be traced to harvest festivals which have been celebrated in many cultures since ancient times, the American holiday has religious undertones related to the deliverance of the English settlers by Native Americans after the brutal winter at Plymouth, Massachusetts. The period from Thanksgiving Day to New Year's Day is often called the holiday season.

Long ago, people called Pilgrims left their home in England and came across the ocean to America in a boat called the Mayflower. They built their own houses, planted seeds they had brought with them, and made friends with the Indians, who were already living in America. The Indians taught them how to plant corn and hunt and fish for animals that they could eat. In the fall, when the corn was ready, the Pilgrims picked it. It was their first harvest, and when they had finished, they had a party to celebrate and give thanks that they had enough food to last through the winter. The party, called the First Thanksgiving, was held outside, and everyone came, including the Indians. Now every year we celebrate Thanksgiving to remember the brave Pilgrims and to give thanks for all of our blessings.

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans. Although this feast is considered by many to the very first Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops. Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America. Historians have also recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America, including British colonists in Berkeley Plantation, Virginia. At this site near the Charles River in December of 1619, a group of British settlers led by Captain John Woodlief knelt in prayer and pledged "Thanksgiving" to God for their healthy arrival after a long voyage across the Atlantic. This event has been acknowledged by some scholars and writers as the official first Thanksgiving among European settlers on record. Whether at Plymouth, Berkeley Plantation, or throughout the Americas, celebrations of thanks have held great meaning and importance over time. The legacy of thanks, and particularly of the feast, have survived the centuries as people throughout the United States gather family, friends, and enormous amounts of food for their yearly Thanksgiving meal.

The history of Thanksgiving goes much further back than Plymouth and 1621. In fact, people across the world from every culture have been celebrating and giving thanks for thousands of years. In this country, long before English colonists arrived, Native People celebrated many different days of thanksgiving. “Strawberry Thanksgiving” and “Green Corn Thanksgiving” are just two of kinds of celebrations for the Wampanoag and other Native People. In 1621, the English colonists at Plymouth (some people call them “Pilgrims” today) had a three-day feast to celebrate their first harvest. More than 90 native Wampanoag People joined the 50 English colonists in the festivities. Historians don­t know for sure why the Wampanoag joined the gathering or what activities went on for those three days. Form the one short paragraph that was written about the celebration at the time, we know that they ate, drank, and played games. Back in England, English people celebrated the harvest by feasting and playing games in much the same way. The English did not call the 1621 event a “thanksgiving.” A day of “thanksgiving” was very different for the colonists. It was a day of prayer to thank God when something really good happened. The English actually had their first thanksgiving in the summer of 1623. On this day they gave thanks for the rain that ended a long drought.

Most stories of Thanksgiving history start with the harvest celebration of the pilgrims and the indians that took place in the autumn of 1621. Although they did have a three-day feast in celebration of a good harvest, and the local indians did participate, this "first Thanksgiving" was not a holiday, simply a gathering. There is little evidence that this feast of thanks led directly to our modern Thanksgiving Day holiday. Thanksgiving can, however, be traced back to 1863 when Pres. Lincoln became the first president to proclaim Thanksgiving Day. The holiday has been a fixture of late November ever since. However, since most school children are taught that the first Thanksgiving was held in 1621 with the pilgrims and indians, let us take a closer look at just what took place leading up to that event, and then what happened in the centuries afterward that finally gave us our modern Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims who sailed to this country aboard the Mayflower were originally members of the English Separatist Church (a Puritan sect). They had earlier fled their home in England and sailed to Holland (The Netherlands) to escape religious persecution. There, they enjoyed more religious tolerance, but they eventually became disenchanted with the Dutch way of life, thinking it ungodly. Seeking a better life, the Separatists negotiated with a London stock company to finance a pilgrimage to America. Most of those making the trip aboard the Mayflower were non-Separatists, but were hired to protect the company's interests. Only about one-third of the original colonists were Separatists. window.google_render_ad();

he Pilgrims, fleeing religious persecution, sailed from England to the New World aboard the Mayflower. They stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock and began a new colony. In unfamiliar territory, they came near starvation, but the Indian Squanto appeared and taught them to plant corn and make their living from the land. Led by William Bradford and Miles Standish, they survived these difficult early days, and when they brought in the first rich harvest, they set aside a day to give thanks to God for their good fortune. The chief Massasoit and their other Native American neighbors came bringing deer and wild turkeys, and together the Indians and the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving. The vague history (more myth, really) of the first Thanksgiving presents a scenario of the encounter of New World and Old World people that existed for only a moment, if it existed at all. It involves one of the least typical, and least successful, groups of European colonizers of the North American continent. Yet Thanksgiving is an important celebration throughout the United States, and like most things central to American culture, it is complicated and multilayered.

The Pilgrims were English Separatists. In the first years of the 17th century, small numbers of English Puritans broke away from the Church of England because they felt that it had not completed the work of the Reformation. They committed themselves to a life based on the Bible. Most of these Separatists were farmers, poorly educated and without social or political standing. One of the Separatist congregations was led by William Brewster and the Rev. Richard Clifton in the village of Scrooby in Nottinghamshire. The Scrooby group emigrated to Amsterdam in 1608 to escape harassment and religious persecution. The next year they moved to Leiden, in Holland where, enjoying full religious freedom, they remained for almost 12 years. In 1617, discouraged by economic difficulties, the pervasive Dutch influence on their children, and their inability to secure civil autonomy, the congregation voted to emigrate to America. Through the Brewster family's friendship with Sir Edwin Sandys, treasurer of the London Company, the congregation secured two patents authorizing them to settle in the northern part of the company's jurisdiction. Unable to finance the costs of the emigration with their own meager resources, they negotiated a financial agreement with Thomas Weston, a prominent London iron merchant. Fewer than half of the group's members elected to leave Leiden. A small ship, the Speedwell, carried them to Southampton, England, where they were to join another group of Separatists and pick up a second ship. After some delays and disputes, the voyagers regrouped at Plymouth aboard the 180-ton Mayflower. It began its historic voyage on Sept. 16, 1620, with about 102 passengers--fewer than half of them from Leiden.

Founding of New England, The by Adams, J. T., (1921; repr. 1963) Bradford, William, Of Plymouth Plantation: 1620-1647, ed. by Samuel E. Morison (1952) Mayflower, The (1974) by Caffrey, Kate Mayflower Pilgrims, The by Colloms, Brenda (1977) Land Ho!--1620 by Nickerson, W. S. (1931). A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony by Demos, John (1988) Pilgrims, The by Dillon, Francis (1975) Mayflower Remembered: A History of the Plymouth Pilgrims by Gill, Crispin (1970) Saga of the Pilgrims by Harris, J.(1990) Pilgrim's Own Story, The by Notson, A.W., and R.C., eds., Stepping Stones: (1987) Pilgrim Fathers from a Dutch Point of View by Plooij, D.(1932; repr. 1970) Bradford of Plymouth by Smith, Bradford (1951) Pilgrims and Their History by Usher, R. G. (1918) Pilgrim Reader (1953) and Saints and Strangers: Pilgrim Fathers, The by Willison, G. F. rev. ed. (1965). Pilgrim Colony: A History of New Plymouth, 1620-1691 by Langdon, G. D., Jr. (1966) Story of the Old Colony of New Plymouth, The by Morison, S. E. (1956); Plymouth Colony: Its History and People by Stratton, E.A. (1987)

Thanksgiving Feast of 1621, but few realize that it was not the first festival of its kind in North America. Long before Europeans set foot in the Americas, native peoples sought to insure a good harvest with dances and rituals such as the Green Corn Dance of the Cherokees.

The first Thanksgiving service known to be held by Europeans in North America occurred on May 27, 1578 in Newfoundland, although earlier Church-type services were probably held by Spaniards in La Florida. However, for British New England, some historians believe that the Popham Colony in Maine conducted a Thanksgiving service in 1607 (see Sources: Greif, 208-209; Gould, and Hatch). In the same year, Jamestown colonists gave thanks for their safe arrival, and another service was held in 1610 when a supply ship arrived after a harsh winter. Berkley Hundred settlers held a Thanksgiving service in accordance with their charter which stated that the day of their arrival in Virginia should be observed yearly as a day of Thanksgiving, but within a few years an Indian uprising ended further services (Dabney). Thus British colonists held several Thanksgiving services in America before the Pilgrim's celebration in 1621.

In 1623, the Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts, held another day of Thanksgiving. As a drought was destroying their crops, colonists prayed and fasted for relief; the rains came a few days later. And not long after, Captain Miles Standish arrived with staples and news that a Dutch supply ship was on its way. Because of all this good fortune, colonists held a day of Thanksgiving and prayer on June 30. This 1623 festival appears to have been the origin of our Thanksgiving Day because it combined a religious and social celebration.

Many of us celebrate Thanksgiving and just assume since we do that everyone else does as well. The answer to whether Thanksgiving is celebrated nationally or not is that it is. Most families celebrate Thanksgiving each and every year and individuals from all over the country make plans to eat turkey and give thanks. Thanksgiving is a nationally recognized holiday. Kids dont go to school, most businesses arent open, and politics are briefly put on hold. The most important Thanksgiving activities include eating, watching sports, and spending time with family and friends. No matter where you are in the nation you will find that most people celebrate Thanksgiving pretty much the same. Some families will celebrate at lunchtime and others at dinner and still others may go out to dinner or not celebrate at all. But, for the most part, celebrating Thanksgiving is an American tradition and one that all Americans enjoy taking part in. Parades Around the Country Even if you cant travel the entire country to see how Thanksgiving is celebrated you can get a pretty good idea. There are Thanksgiving Day parades all over the country and many of them are televised. One of the most popular and well known parades is the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade. This parade has been around for decades and continues to be a hit with New Yorkers as well as individuals around the country who make watching the parade on television part of their celebration. You may choose to attend a parade on Thanksgiving day in your town or perhaps you will choose to watch one on TV. Regardless, parades around the country really make up part of the Thanksgiving culture we have all become so accustomed to. In fact, when you turn the television on Thanksgiving Day you will more than likely see a parade or a football game! Thats just part of Thanksgiving Day culture in our country.

Many celebrations and thanksgiving ceremonies were held to show gratitude for the natural blessings that were a part of life. People gave thanks for the beginning of each new year, the time when the maple sap began to flow, the planting and harvesting of the crops, and the ripening of corn, beans, and strawberries, which they celebrated with festivals.

Native people cared about their environment, especially because they depended on it so much.

Hunters asked silent permission from the animals they killed and thanked them for providing food and clothing for the families of the hunters. They hunted in different places so they would not kill too many animals in any area.

All of these thanksgiving celebrations happened before the Pilgrims had their feast: APRIL 3, 15 13 Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon celebrated a day of thanks when he landed in what is now Florida. SEPTEMBER 8, 1565 Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles held a thanksgiving service when he founded St. Augustine in Florida. APRIL 20, 1598 The group of Spaniards led by Don Juan de Oñate gave thanks. They had survived a 350-mile trip from Mexico to a spot near what is now El Paso, Texas. With the Pueblo people, they feasted on roasted geese, ducks, and fish, along with local vegetables and cactus fruit. DECEMBER 4, l619 A group of Virginia settlers is said to have held their colony's first thanksgiving service. They gave thanks for their safe arrival in Virginia.

As a celebration steeped in American history, you might expect it to be a day of remembering our forebears and displaying patriotism. However, in modern times, consideration of the first Thanksgiving is generally relegated to schoolchildren. Although that first celebration was a landmark moment in the history of America, beyond giving thanks for freedom and safety, you won't typically find the flag waving of the Fourth of July or Memorial Day. Instead, the holiday remains centered on family, friends, and food. Some see the holiday as a last bastion of non-commercialization. Beyond a few centerpieces and themed party supplies, Thanksgiving doesn't receive the same marketing push as Valentine's Day, Halloween, or especially Christmas. It feels more pure in this regard. However, the time and money required to create a traditional Thanksgiving spread doesn't make the day completely free of pressure. As a national holiday, Thanksgiving means a day free from school and work for most. Even television seems to conspire to bring families closer together, with spectacles such as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, big football games, and themed marathons on numerous cable channels inviting everyone to gather 'round. Although giving thanks for the many blessings of life is easily interpreted as a religious sentiment, there is no particular creed or belief system associated with the holiday. A community might host an ecumenical service in honor of the holiday. Families often say a prayer over the food before beginning dinner. Churches sponsor holiday dinners as outreach to the poor and lonely. However, all of these actions are founded on the basic, secular premise of giving thanks. From preschoolers making handprint turkeys to adults remembering the most important people and moments in their lives, it is easy to answer, "Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving?" Like the Pilgrims did on that long-ago day, we all gather to give thanks for the many bounties life offers.

Thanksgiving that is celebrated with family and friends needs to be cherished so that in years to come it will be remembered as one of the best times in everyone’s life. This is why it is important to make that special pumpkin pie or even a green bean casserole that your grandma used to make. It is the traditional dishes that are brought by friends and loved ones that makes the dishes seem like gifts to the feast.