THE FIRST THANKSGIVING

In 1621, the 50 Plymouth colonists and 90 Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest
feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the
colonies. The association of the Pilgrims with the Thanksgiving holiday has a
complicated history. The holiday itself evolved out of a routine Puritan religious
observation that was irregularly declared and celebrated in response to God's favorable
Providence. The first national Thanksgiving was declared in 1777 by the Continental
Congress, and others were declared from time to time until 1815. The holiday then
reverted to being a regional observance until 1863. Then in the middle of the Civil War is
when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, that was to
be held each November.

What did the "First Thanksgiving" meal consist of? The Pilgrim and Indians may have
had eaten fish, eel, clams, turkey, duck, goose, and partridge. Perhaps along with some
corn, acorns, carrots, pumpkins, beans, peas, and grapes. The first Thanksgiving meal
may have also had a few walnuts or chestnuts. And there were no pies of any kind.
Nobody really knows exactly what they served. They did not use forks and probably ate
mostly with their hands. They did not dress up in those campy black and white outfits.
Their clothes were probably in earth tones like brown and beige.

Everything we know about the three-day Plymouth gathering comes from a description in
a letter wrote by Edward Winslow, leader of the Plymouth Colony, in 1621. This letter
was a short one but it was clear that the 1621 feast was not something that was supposed
to be repeated again and again. The letter was lost for 200 years and it was rediscovered
in the 1800s. In 1841 Boston publisher Alexander Young printed Winslow's brief account
of the feast and added his own twist, dubbing the 1621 feast the "First Thanksgiving."
Young's designation caught on.

Though this feast of "Thanksgiving" for Divine protection given was not the first one of
it's kind, it has grown into a great celebration in the United States. In 1541 Spaniard
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and his troops celebrated a "Thanksgiving" while
searching for New World gold in what is now the Texas Panhandle. Later such feasts
were held by French Huguenot colonists in present-day Jacksonville, Florida (1564), by
English colonists and Abnaki Indians at Maine's Kennebec River (1607), and in
Jamestown, Virginia (1610), when the arrival of a food-laden ship ended a brutal famine.
One would do well to remember to give thanks to God because of the great things that He
has done, for all of mankind. "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts
with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy
is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations." (Psalm 100:4-5)