Gobble, gobble!
Football, family reunions, pumpkin pie, and, of course, roasted turkey with stuffing! Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated in the United States on the twenty-sixth of November this year, and is also celebrated by a handful of other countries around the globe. It began as a day to give thanks, and sacrifice for the blessing of the harvest. Though, what was the reason for this? What was the Mayflower? In this article I will discuss the history behind Thanksgiving, and why we celebrate this holiday.
Interestingly enough, not too much is known about the original Thanksgiving that took place during 1621, which quickly became the model we all know, and love today. References to this event are shown below:
“And God be praised we had a good increase… Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.”
Edward Winslow, Mourt’s Relation: D.B. Heath, ed. Applewood Books. Cambridge, 1986. p 82
“They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which is place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.”
William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation: S.E. Morison, ed. Knopf. N.Y., 1952. p 90
In order to keep it simple, the original Thanksgiving wasn’t filled with the cooked turkey, and pumpkin pie obsession we might possibly have in our Thanksgiving family reunions today based off of the writings shown. With all of that being said, here is the story of the first Thanksgiving dinner:
SEPTEMBER, 1620 it is believed that about a hundred, and two passengers boarded the Mayflower, a merchant ship, and set sail from Plymouth, a port on the southern coast of England.
Originally another ship, the Speedwell, planned to sail with the Mayflower, but began to leak almost immediately. This resulted in both of the ships heading back to port in Plymouth, leaving the Speedwell behind, and everyone squeezing themselves, and their belongings on the Mayflower. The passengers were finally ready to visit the New World, and the Mayflower setting sail under the direction of Captain Christopher Jones.
Despite the solution for the Speedwell being unable to make the journey with the Mayflower, the passengers of the ship suffered due to the delay this caused them. The Mayflower had to cross the Atlantic during the height of a storm season, causing a great amount of misery among the passengers.
After sixty-six days, roughly two months, at sea, the ship reached the New World. To each of their surprise, the Mayflower’s passengers found an abandoned Indian village, and that they were in the wrong location. Cape Cod, their accidental destination, was forty-two degrees north latitude, north of the Virginia Company’s territory. The Mayflower was intended to land in Northern Virginia, and set out their exploration at the Hudson River.
The first winter in the New World was immensely difficult, and the colonists spent their time living onboard the Mayflower. This brought unbearable living conditions to the colonists such as diseases, malnutrition, and a cold climate. This left only fifty-three, roughly half of the crew, alive. The women who boarded the ship also suffered greatly during this time, and out of the nineteen women who boarded the Mayflower, only five survived the dreaded winter.
APRIL, 1621 after the winter passed, the Mayflower sailed back to England, which left the colonists to move to land of the New World, which was only the beginning of the challenges they will face. It is believed without the aid brought by the area’s native people, none of the colonists would have survived.
This was all thanks to Squanto, an English-speaking native, who helped the colonists form an alliance with the Wampanoags due to the colonists being new to such a territory. The colonists were also taught how to hunt local animals, gather shellfish, and to grow corn, beans, and squash.
The following fall brought a plentiful harvest for the colonists, which wanted to be celebrated as this was their first successful harvest in the New Word by Governor William Bradford. They sent out men who fished, and hunted ducks, and other native animals to the land in preparation for the celebration feast. The Wampanoags, fearful that the colonists were planning a war, sent chief Massasoit to the colony in hopes that this wasn’t the case. To each of the Wampanoags' surprises, the colonists were preparing for a feast, and not war. It was then decided that the two groups would celebrate together, and be at peace with the opposite group.
The Wampanoags began hunting deer for the feast, and it was then that the celebration was to take place. The feast lasted for three days, which consisted of deer, fish, shellfish, corn, duck, lobster, eel, and more. Although it is believed that there was no pumpkin pie, or turkey being served during the celebration; there isn’t an exact menu on what was served at the first Thanksgiving, and all we have to reference for the assumption on what they ate was their location, and the piece of writings listed above.
Two years later, they gathered again for their second feast. The purpose for their second feast was to give thanks to God for rain after a drought that lasted for two months. It was then that Thanksgiving was born in Plymouth, a small town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts.
Thanksgiving is now an annual national holiday where a celebratory feast takes place in November in order to give thanks, and reflect on the blessings brought to you that year.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!