1621.  And Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is pretty much my favorite holiday.  For our family, it’s usually about the whole family getting together, sometimes with added neighbors or friends.  It seems like a natural time to feel Thankfulness and Appreciation.

How did we REALLY begin our Thanksgiving Holiday?

I think Thanksgiving facts and myths have blended together for so long, someone said it’s like gravy with mashed potatoes—hard to separate them.

Our Thanksgiving “of today” may not hold 100% to factual roots, but it is totally enjoyable in the light of “togetherness” and “thankfulness”, a tradition of sharing a special meal with friends and family, and with gratitude.

I decided to research Thanksgiving history, and thought I’d share a bit of what I’ve found.

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday in the United States, and is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November each year.

We attribute the first Thanksgiving Celebration to be the Pilgrims and Indians being thankful together, sharing food and fellowship.  It seems that’s partly true.

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In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers.  They were an assortment of religious separatists looking for a new home so they could freely practice their faith called Puritans, along with other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in “the New World”.

After a treacherous and very uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, North of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River.  Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring.

A month later the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay where the Pilgrims (as we know them) began establishing a village at Plymouth.

It seems that three years prior to the Pilgrims landing, English and French fishermen came ashore to find fresh water and firewood, and transmitted diseases to tribes that were there.

According to Potawatomi.org, the plague wiped out between 90-96% of the inhabitants of coastal New England.  Many Native Americans died.

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Squanto (Tisquantum) was a member of the Wampanoag tribe.  The story goes that he assisted the Pilgrims with teaching them how to grow crops and take advantage of North America’s bounties.  So evidently this happened, but it looks like there is more of a reason than from the greatness of his heart.

Six years before the Mayflower arrived, a slave trader captured Squanto and other Native Americans.  It is said that the Catholic Church helped Squanto escape.  He found his way to England, where he learned English, and eventually returned to North America in 1619, a year before the arrival of the Pilgrims.

While Squanto was overseas, the plague (they called it European diseases) left a great death rate among the Indigenous people, and Squanto returning to his village of Patuset, found only piles of bones of his fellow tribesmen killed by the plagues.  He realized he was the sole survivor in his village.

Where Squanto’s village once was, the pilgrims established Plymouth Plantation.

During this time, the Wampanoag lost up to 75% of its people, even though a nearby tribe (the Narragansett) did not.  Massasoit was the leader of the Wampanoag tribe, and saw the pilgrims as possible allies against the Narragansett.

Since Squanto could speak English, he was a good choice for Massasoit.  Massasoit used him as a translator, but he did not trust Squanto, even though he was his fellow tribal member, and he held Squanto as a prisoner.

It seems Squanto was pretty shrewd.  The Pilgrims at this time were weakened by malnutrition and illness, and rather than continue a life as a slave to Massasoit, he established himself as a valuable resource to the pilgrims so the pilgrims could be an ally with the Wampanoag, against the Narragansett. 

He taught the settlers how to survive in their new land.  He helped them grow corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers, and to avoid poisonous plants, as well as how to use fish to fertilize their fields.

He helped make it possible for the Wampanoag tribe and the Pilgrims to make a treaty in March of 1621, that the tribe would look out for the Pilgrims against their enemies, and vice-versa.  This treaty endured for more than 50 years.

In November, 1621, the Pilgrims were shooting their guns—some say celebrating their first successful corn harvest; some say hunting—but the shooting caused Massasoit to bring his warriors prepared for battle. 

Realizing their celebration, it seems Massasoit actually sent some of his own men to hunt deer for the feast, and the feast lasted for 3 days, as the English and Native men, women and children ate together.

The meal consisted of deer, corn, shellfish and roasted meat.  Some think it also consisted of lobster, seal and swans.

(According to history.com, this feast was organized by Governor William Bradford, and that he invited the Wampanoag Chief Massasoit.)

This is remembered as the First thanksgiving.

The second Thanksgiving celebration was in 1623, to mark the end of a long drought that had threatened the year’s harvest, and it prompted Governor Bradford to call for a religious fast.

During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress designated one or more days each year as Thanksgiving days.

For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. 

George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the national government, calling on Americans to express their gratitude for the conclusion of the country’s war of independence and the ratification of the U. S. Constitution. 

President John Adams and President James Madison also each designated days of thanks during their presidencies.

In 1827, magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday.  She worked for 36 years to accomplish this, and earned the nickname, the “Mother of Thanksgiving.”

Finally in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed all Americans to ask God to “heal the wounds of the nation”, and proclaimed the National Holiday of Thanksgiving.

Again, some say this was a totally political move to distract the people from the actual problems that were going on, as Lincoln himself had apparently ordered several Indians to be shot just prior to this.

That First Thanksgiving Day may not have been the sunny portrait we see in pictures, with excellent relations between the Pilgrims and Wampanoag people.  (Some Natives even commemorate a National Day of Mourning on that day at the top of Cole’s Hill which overlooks Plymouth Rock.)

(Oh…and it seems the Puritans’ shoes did not have buckles!). And instead of wearing black clothing, it seems they actually wore bright colored clothing.  And the Natives actually didn’t wear woven blankets or feathered headdresses.

We know that days of thanksgiving are celebrated in countries all over the world.  And historians have noted that Native Americans had a rich tradition of commemorating the fall harvest with feasting and merrymaking in their past history before the Pilgrims came to our country.

Regardless of how or why the First Thanksgiving happened, we can see that their times were hard.  The leaders encouraged celebrating Thanksgiving Days at various times, but looks like it was mainly during the hard times.  And it’s good for us to celebrate and be thankful, during “harvest and bounty”, and during hard times.  Wherever we are.

So as we celebrate our Thanksgiving Day, cooking, visiting, being Thankful, watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, or whatever we do… let us remember to truly be thankful for the Blessings we have been granted.

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Did you know that if you are having a bout of feeling sorry for yourself, the best antidote is to think of things to be thankful for?  Writing a few of your blessings in a journal is even more powerful.

Did you know that it strengthens your immune system to be grateful?

Did you know that grateful people experience fewer aches and pains?

Gratitude also reduces a multitude of toxic emotions, from envy and resentment to frustration and regret (according to Psychology Today).

It increases happiness and reduces depression.

It reduces aggression, and increases empathy.

Grateful people sleep better (according to Psychology:Health and Wellbeing).

Gratitude improves self-esteem, and

Gratitude increases mental strength…

and reduces stress

and helps overcome trauma.

Gratitude is a major contributor to resilience following a major traumatic event (according to Journal of Personality & Social Psychology)

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I’m very thankful for my life, my family, our church family, our Sunday School Class (so very thankful for each one!)

I’m thankful that I have had the opportunity to share helpful thoughts about health and well-being.

We’ll be traveling a couple of hours to my son’s home for Thanksgiving Dinner this year…first year in I don’t know when, that I haven’t cooked.  He invited the whole family there to his newly remodeled home.  It will be a change, and it will be good.  We’ll eat good, tasty food, and probably a lot of it, and enjoy getting together.

Thank you for reading, and I hope if you celebrate Thanksgiving, you have a very enjoyable Day, and if you don’t celebrate it, that you continue to be thankful.

Sharon