The First Thanksgiving

As already mentioned earlier, this Thursday (the fourth of November) was Thanksgiving (my first) - an annual day of holiday for the US. Curious as to how this holiday came about I asked a few American workmates and dug a little more on the Internet to get a feel for the history of the day. The Pilgrims who originally came to the New World on the Mayflower were fleeing England to escape religious persecution. They set ground at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620 and the first winter was devastating. By the following Autumn, 46 of the original 102 who sailed had died. However, the harvest of 1621 was bountiful and the remaining colonists decided to celebrate with a feast, also including 91 native Americans who had helped the Pilgrims. The feast was more of a traditional English harvest festival than a true "thanksgiving" observance and lasted three days. However, after this, the next "Day of Thanksgiving" wasn't officially proclaimed until 1676 - but, interestingly, this is thought not to have included the native Americans as the celebration was partly a consequence of the recent victory of the 'heathen natives'.

The 13 colonies first celebrated together in 1777 - but it wasn't until 1789 that George Washington declared a national day of Thanksgiving that was somewhat opposed. The history of Thanksgiving doesn't end here - as there was still some feeling that the hardship of a few pilgrims didn't warrant a day of rest (presidents such as Jefferson scoffed at the idea). Thanks to the efforts of a Sarah Josepha Hale (a magazine editor) finally led to her achieving her goal (after 40 years of writing editorials, letters and goodness knows what else) when Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November. And here it has pretty much stayed (apart from a two years when FDR moved it up a week to create a longer Christmas shopping season before it returned owing to the uproar it created). And here it has remained since.