Feature Article: Happy Thanksgiving and a Short History of it!

Happy day of celebration! I hope you had or are having a great day of thanks, God, and stuffing your face with food! As it is a tradition in the blogging world on Thanksgiving, I shall tell you the story of the first Thanksgiving.

When the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, the Indians, the Wampanoag, helped them a great deal. The Indians helped them plant things that would stay alive like corn. So, after the first year, the Pilgrims found they had enough food to live through the next year. They had a large meal to celebrate. The Pilgrims sent four hunters into the forest to shot some fowling.  We assume this is where turkey came from.

What else did they eat?

They ate fish (Cod), unions, and corn. They might have had bread, salt, and fresh squash.

Then, the Pilgrims began shooting their guns at targets. The Indians assumed it was an act of hostility. As any leader would, the Indians came to investigate. When they arrived,  they began eating with the Pilgrims. Thus, this what we think was the first thanksgiving, but alas this old story is not the FIRST thanksgiving. So, How did it really start?

Our day of gorging ourselves originated from a day of fasting years before the Pilgrims. Well, not so much of a day of fasting, but you spent so much time at church, you didn’t have time to eat. The Englishman celebrated God all day, but this day of Godly thanks became morphed when the date of thanksgiving neared the end of the harvest. People began eating on this day. This continued on well into the 19th century. Now, America was a country. Americans celebrated Thanksgiving as an informal holiday. Sarah Josepha Hale was the one who began pushing for it to be a national holiday. Since it was right before the start of the Civil War, Hale thought that a national holiday of thanks would be great for both the North and the South. Unfortunately, The South took it as a Yankee holiday, and said it was the North making them obey more rules. Hale wrote to Presidents, Senators, and Governors to make it a holiday.

Abraham Lincoln proclaimed on Oct. 31st to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. In this proclamation he asked all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” Lincoln scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November. Hale had asked for this date because it was the date the minister gave this mid-week sermon. Hale thought this was an appropriate day.

Thanksgiving was celebrated on that day every year until 1939. Then, Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday a week later to try to let it coincide with Christmas shopping thus helping retail sales during the Great Depression. However, his plan backfired. Half of America celebrated it on the day on which Thanksgiving was usually celebrated, the other half celebrated it on the day Roosevelt had said to celebrate it, and some celebrated it on both days.

Finally in 1941, the president  signed a bill that made Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November. It however  did not make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Finally in 1941, Thanksgiving was finally made a national holiday. This is what we celebrate today.

—-Facts taken from an article called Thanksgiving by the History Channel and the Television program: The Real Story of Thanksgiving by the History Channel.

But on the upside for you, I watched the entire hour video and read the article to condense it down to this article for your information!

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So, I hope you found this article interesting, and that you have/ had a great Thanksgiving. May you count your blessings, may God bless you, and may you stuff your face with food. Amen!