Thankful, Grateful, and Blessed!
What comes to mind when you think of Thanksgiving? Do you think of the delicious spread of casseroles, dressing, turkey, and every pie imaginable? The community of being around all your family and friends? The excitement of watching the Iron Bowl? (This is a top one for us here in Alabama!) Or perhaps you think of all the amazing shopping your going to do on Black Friday!
Whatever it is you think of, Thanksgiving in the U.S. is a day where we all gather together and are reminded of all we have been blessed with and are grateful for. In honor of this wonderful holiday, let’s take a moment to remember the reason we gather together in a time of thankfulness.
The history of Thanksgiving dates back all the way to 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts and marks the first successful harvest for the Pilgrims with the help of their Native American neighbors. But there is more to this story than what we remember from school.
One year prior, in the Autumn of 1620, around 100 passengers departed from England on the ship, The Mayflower, and sailed off towards the ‘New World’ in the hopes of being able to practice their faith freely. After a treacherous journey across the Atlantic, the Pilgrims landed in the New World and began working to establish a village at Plymouth.
That first winter was recorded as a harsh one, and most colonists remained on the ship, constantly exposed to disease and scurvy. Only half of the original passengers would survive until spring.
In March 1621, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received a miraculous visit from a native of the Abenaki tribe, thus beginning one of the few harmonious relationships between English settlers and Native Americans. He and another native named Squanto taught the settlers how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers, avoid poisonous plants, and even helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe in the region.
November of 1621 marked the success of the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest. In celebration, the settlers threw a huge three-day feast, inviting all of their Native American allies who helped them survive. This historically became known as “The First Thanksgiving.” Several iconic landmarks from that time still remain in Plymouth today.
From there, the holiday grew and popularized. In 1789, George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation of the United States and in 1817, New York became the first of several states to adopt a Thanksgiving holiday. Thanksgiving was officially established as a National Holiday by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 at the height of the civil war in an attempt to “Heal the wounds of the nation.”
Today, thousands of Americans have their own traditions of the holiday which usually consist of cooking a great meal with their friends and family, watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, or playing a friendly game of football in the backyard.