Pilgrims Thanksgiving

The Pilgrims thanksgiving was a celebration of survival, protection and community. Our national holiday commemorates the feast held in the autumn of 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag to celebrate the colony's first successful harvest.

The group that became known as Pilgrims sailed from Plymouth, England on Sept. 6, 1620 on a ship called the Mayflower. Aboard were 102 men, women, and children on a historic voyage across the turbulent ocean. The long, cold and damp trip took 65 days. Many passengers became ill, two people died and one baby was born by the time land was sighted on November 10th. Another child was born as the ship anchored at Cape Cod.

The long difficult trip led to many disagreements among those on board and separation into two dissenting groups. After land was sighted a meeting was held and an agreement worked out. This agreement is called the Mayflower Compact; it guaranteed equality and unified the two groups. It was upon this bond of unity that they named themselves "Pilgrims."

The Pilgrims gave thanks:

The Pilgrims were anxious to explore the country for a place to settle down. One party of explorers, working its way around Cape Cod Bay, had to take refuge on an island in Plymouth harbor during a snow storm. On December 11th they landed at Plymouth, which had been named by Captain John Smith in 1614. There they found cleared land, a stream with pure water, and a high hill that could be fortified. There had previously been a Native American village there.

The first winter was devastating. The cold, snow and sleet was heavy, interfering with the workers as they tried to build their settlement. The Pilgrims biggest concern was attack by the local Native American Indians. But the Patuxets were a peaceful group and did not prove to be a threat.

March brought warmer weather and the health of the Pilgrims improved, but many had died during the long winter. Fewer than fifty of the original group survived until spring.

On March 16, 1621, an Abnaki Indian brave named Samoset walked into the Plymouth settlement. The Pilgrims were frightened until the Indian called out "Welcome" in English he had learned from the captains of fishing boats that had sailed off the coast.

Samoset spent a night in the settlement, then left and returned with an Indian named Squanto who spoke better English. Squanto told the Pilgrims of his voyages across the ocean and his visits to England and Spain.

Squanto's offered himself to the Pilgrims to teach them how to survive in their new land. He taught them how to tap maple trees for sap, which plants were poisonous and which had medicinal powers, how to plant the Indian corn by heaping the earth into low mounds with several seeds and a fish in each mound as fertilizer, and how to plant other crops with the corn.

The harvest in October was very successful and the Pilgrims found themselves with enough food to put away for the winter. There was corn, fruits and vegetables, fish to be packed in salt, and meat to be cured over smoky fires.

The Pilgrims had much to celebrate, they had built homes in the wilderness, they had raised enough crops to keep them alive during the long coming winter, they were at peace with their Indian neighbors. It was time for a Pilgrim Thanksgiving.

Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native Americans. They invited Squanto and the other Indians to join them in their celebration. Their chief, Massasoit, and 90 braves came to the celebration which lasted for four days. They played games, ran races, marched and played drums.

The Indians demonstrated their skills with the bow and arrow and the Pilgrims demonstrated their musket skills. Exactly when the festival took place is uncertain, but it is believed to have been in mid-October. The Pilgrim's Thanksgiving is widely regarded as "the first Thanksgiving" however other historical evidence shows this was only one origin of the harvest festival that is now an annual celebration for many.

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Origin of Thanksgiving

History of Thanksgiving

The First Thanksgiving