Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. People are waking up, not going to work because they have the day off (most of them anyway), and are spending time with family watching the parades in New York. Its a day to relax, enjoy food and spend time with family. This is the Thanksgiving in the modern United States. What is associated with Thanksgiving from Pilgrims to when the first Thanksgiving took place has solidified itself in American culture. The problem with what is associated with Thanksgiving is that it is all wrong but yet have come to associate with Thanksgiving regardless. I have grown up with the American cultural depictions of the Pilgrims, Native Americans, Plymouth Rock and turkeys. When I think of Thanksgiving I think of these and I cannot undue what I grew up with but I can add footnotes to my thoughts on what is actually true and what is false.
The Pilgrims did not have the first Thanksgiving. There were others that held a Thanksgiving but yet we like to regard the Pilgrims as having the first Thanksgiving:
-1565 St. Augustine, Florida: Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed ashore with 800 settlers establishing the city of St. Augustine. When they landed a Mass of Thanksgiving was held. The native Seloy tribe attended this Thanksgiving.
-1598 El Paso, Texas: Spanish explorer Juan de Onate held a Thanksgiving festival after leading settlers on a 350 mile march across the Mexican desert
-1619 Berkley Plantation, Virginia: The ship called Margaret brought 38 English settlers to the plantation. To commemorate the ship’s arrival a celebration of Thanksgiving took place
-1621 Plymouth, Massachusetts: Regarded as the First Thanksgiving in American history.
-1623 Plymouth, Massachusetts: A larger Thanksgiving feast
Did the Pilgrims really wear all black and have those buckles? No they did not. Buckles were not in fashion until the late 1600s. The Pilgrims would have worn bright colored clothes instead of the common black in American culture. They also did not wear those interesting shoes.
Did the Pilgrims really eat potatoes, apple pie, corn and turkey. No they did not. The Pilgrims did grow corn but most likely did not eat it off the cob. Pumpkin was around but it was not in a pie. They ate some kind of fowl but was never known if it was actually a turkey. The main protein was venison or some kind of fowl but was most likely not turkey as sources never say that. Turkey was around and they have eaten it before but it was just never stated in the accounts.
It wasn’t until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday and prior to that it was only held in New England. The modern Thanksgiving is credited to Sarah Josepha Hale whom had successfully lobbied for the creation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863. Hale’s book Godey’s Lady’s Book helped create the modern dishes of Thanksgiving like roasted turkey and pumpkin pie.
So the modern Thanksgiving is more of a blend of an inaccurate account on the 1621 Plymouth Thanksgiving, Sarah Hale’s book containing food recipes that we now eat at Thanksgiving and her campaign to make Thanksgiving a holiday, and add in the appreciation of family and friends.
Sources
The First Thanksgiving. Retrieved from, https://www.nps.gov/casa/learn/historyculture/the-first-thanksgiving.htm
Shenkman, Rick. (November 2001) Retrieved from, https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/406
Strauss, Valerie. (November 23, 2011) 5 myths about Thanksgiving. Retrieved from, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/5-myths-about-thanksgiving/2011/11/22/gIQA3UffmN_blog.html
Andrew R. Nicholas 