A Short Look Back to the First Thanksgiving

Here we are, getting ready to celebrate our annual holiday, Thanksgiving, again. This has always been one of my favorite holidays and I am so sad that it is almost overlooked today. As a child we did all kinds of art projects and had plays about the first Thanksgiving at school, while at home we would plan our wonderful turkey day meal and start baking all kinds of goodies day's before so we would be ready for the fantastic feast to come. There were a few times that we opened our home to someone that would not have had a Thanksgiving otherwise. It was a time of gratitude and thankfulness. Today, it seems like it almost gets lost in all of the early Christmas hype! To me this is very sad. My prayer is that this wonderful holiday will not be lost completely. My hats off to National Geographic for the new TV Miniseries, Documentary retelling the pilgrim story, "Saints & Strangers". Please check your local listings for this show.

 

 

Here is a brief history of the First Thanksgiving:

 

The history of the first Thanksgiving as a holiday goes back to 1620. Late that year, the Mayflower, a small ship for ocean crossings, left England with over 100 passengers on board. Some of them sought religious freedom in the new world and others simply were drawn by stories of the prosperity one could achieve in America. The journey to the new world lasted over two months. When they arrived, they found themselves well off course, near the tip of Cape Cod. They had been navigating for the Hudson River. They setup the colony at Plymouth on the other side of the bay over a month later. The settlers were ill prepared for the harsh New England winter and by the time spring came, they were down to about half of their original compliment.

 

 

That spring they met a Native American who spoke English. He introduced them to Squanto; the famous English speaking Indian who helped the settlers stay alive. He showed the otherwise hopeless settlers how to fish and hunt as well as how to grow corn and tell edible plants from poisonous ones. Squanto introduced the settlers to a friendly local tribe called the Wampanoag. With the help of the Native Americans the settlers prospered and later that year, in November of 1621 the settlers were ready to celebrate the successful harvest of their first crop of corn. The settlers invited many of their Indian allies to the party. The celebration of that 1st harvest lasted 3 days, with many of the dishes from both the settlers as well as the Native American cuisine.

 

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