The First Thanksgiving: What Happened, When Was It, And What Are They Hiding?

 Every child in America has the bullet points of the first Thanksgiving drilled in their heads---turkeys, corns, pilgrims and Native Americans holding hands together, eating the food, and looking at it around the dinner table--- But Thanksgiving isn't that simple. Pilgrims and Native Americans came together, but none celebrated for a good time again, and it wasn't really considered Thanksgiving. It's a holiday that requires some serious effort to become an annual tradition.

First Thanksgiving

After the Pilgrims arrived in America, they settled a plot of land that had been abandoned by the Patuxet tribe because of the plague. The weather was harsh and unforgiving, but in October 1621, the last surviving Patuxet, Squanto, arrived to teach the Pilgrims how to catch eels and grow corn, so everyone attended. The Thanksgiving feast lasted three days and featured a drop-in from 90 Native Americans, who descended with 53 pilgrims. James Baker, vice president of research for Plymouth Plantation, said in 1996:

The event occurred between September 21 and November 11, 1621, most likely around the traditional time of Michaelmas (September 29).

Thanksgiving In July

Pilgrims would not celebrate the second Thanksgiving until 1623, two years after their initial celebration. However, the next Thanksgiving was not given as a repeat of the first holiday; It was a two-week rain festival that boosted the pilgrims' crops and produced a higher harvest than expected. They took a little jump from the gun, throwing a feast around July 30, but they were fasting during the rain, so can you blame them? This Thanksgiving feast also came from the governor, not the church, so it was less of a holy day and more of a civil recognition of the pilgrim's good fortune. Governor Bradford wrote at the time:

And afterwards the Lord sent them such seasonal showers, in which the hot weather was exchanged, as if by his blessing, had led to a fruitful and bountiful harvest, with no small comfort and joy for them. For what mercy, at a convenient time, they also set aside the day of thanksgiving ... By this time the harvest had come, and instead of famine now God gave them a lot ... for which they blessed God. And the effect of their special planting was well seen, for all ... very good ... so there was no general need or famine among them till date

Americans Celebrate During the Revolutionary War

Once the colonists cut that whole agricultural thing down and turned their attention to higher-minded tasks like fighting for their independence, they didn't have time to drop everything for the annual harvest feast, but This did not prevent the Continental Congress from declaring various. Thanksgiving Day in different states. It could be Thanksgiving one month in Virginia and Thanksgiving the next month in Pennsylvania; It all depended on what the Continental Congress decided. Representative Samuel Adams wrote a treatment for wartime holidays that was quickly approved by the Continental Congress that read in part:

Because it is the obligatory duty of all human beings to worship the superintendence ordinance of Almighty God; To acknowledge with gratitude His obligation to Him, and to receive such further blessings... and to rejoice in His abundant mercy, not only to us through His common Providence. To continue with the innumerable bounties; But also to smile at us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war to defend and establish our inalienable rights and liberties; Especially in that he is pleased.

Meanwhile, George Washington threw all that out and declared Thanksgiving dinner in December 1777 after a victory over the British at Saratoga. It was the beginning of a series of Thanksgivings that could break at any time without warning.

Washington does a Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is nothing if not an earlier series. In 1789, Washington ratified a resolution from New Jersey's representative that mandated thanksgiving for complying with the new United States Constitution. On October 3 of that year, Washington announced that November 26 would be the National Day of Thanksgiving, although because he was a great believer in the rights of the states, he distributed his proclamation to the state's respective governors and let them handle the entire deal. Following the proclamation of the holiday, Washington celebrated at St. Paul's Chapel in New York City before donating beer and food to the city's imprisoned debtors. Instead of creating a nationwide standard for the celebration, the following presidents were allowed to observe Thanksgiving as and when they liked.

Jefferson refuses to leave

When Thomas Jefferson was elected president in 1801, he didn't even think about celebrating Thanksgiving because he saw it as a union of church and state, which he didn't usually love. It's believed that Jefferson hated Thanksgiving, which doesn't make him different from a lot of modern Americans, but he, in fact, felt that encouraging the celebration of a Christian holiday would encourage the idea of ​​a state-sponsored religion.

After the Thanksgiving shortfall in 1801, Jefferson considered clarifying his position in a letter to the public in 1802. The president actually told his attorney general, Levi Lincoln, that he was eager to tell everyone his views on religion and why it should be kept out of government, but Lincoln urged people to think twice about their religions. Convinced because of his love of getting out of the stance of a political enemy. Instead of attacking the Federalists and his love of Thanksgiving, he doubled down on his belief in the separation of church and state.