Artist - Victoria Rouse
The History Of “Thanksgiving”
Thanksgiving is an American holiday with a long history. Its origins come from the early 17th century with the celebration of 1621 known as “The First Thanksgiving.” The event took place in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where pilgrims from England who had settled in the New World to seek religious freedom gathered with the Wampanoag people to celebrate a successful harvest.
The story of this First Thanksgiving has become a big part of America; big between Indigenous people and European settlers. After a hard winter in 1620, where half of the Pilgrim population died, the Wampanoag led by Chief Massasoit offered help. The Wampanoag taught the pilgrims critical survival techniques, including how to cultivate native crops like corn, beans, and squash, and introduced them to fishing and hunting in New England. In the fall of 1621 after a successful harvest, the pilgrims invited the Wampanoag to join in a three-day feast to give thanks for the help of the land. Attendees included around 50 pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag. Little is known about the exact foods they ate. Many people say it was far different from the modern Thanksgiving feast featuring foods like venison, fowl, and corn-based dishes.
Thanksgiving celebrations were not held consistently each year after 1621. Days of Thanks and Prayer were common in many places, but it wasn’t until the Revolutionary War that George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789. November 26 is a day of national thanksgiving and prayer. However, Thanksgiving was not yet an annual holiday. The declaration was shown more as a one-time event than a recurring tradition.
The holiday of Thanksgiving was largely the result of the efforts of Sarah Josepha Hale, a writer and editor who campaigned for nearly 30 years to establish it as a national holiday. Hale believed that a shared Thanksgiving celebration would help a divided America. Finally, in 1863 during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday designating the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father, who dwelleth in the Heavens.