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Thanksgiving Resources For Home-Schooling: History Of Thanksgiving
Giving thanks during harvest time is nothing new. Different nations and people groups from all over the world have been celebrating the harvest since the beginning of agriculture, as chronicled in the Old Testament. Today, we in the USA celebrate Thanksgiving, a time to give praise to the Lord for his mercy and love. Most people know that the first thanksgiving celebration had something to do with Pilgrims and Indians, but there’s much more to the story than that! For one thing, it didn’t look a thing like this Norman Rockwell painting. Let’s dig deeper and find out together about the storied history of Thanksgiving. You may be shocked by what you find!Setting Sail for the New World
The Pilgrims were a group of Christians that desired to worship the Lord in the way they saw fit. They found the oppressive monarchy in England to be restrictive of their freedoms and first left for Holland. Believing the Dutch way of life to be contradictory to Biblical teaching, they then planned to set out for the New World. Meanwhile, the Separatists desired to leave England for very similar reasons. They desired to “separate” from the church in England and likewise set out for the New World. Together they struck a deal with a London stock company and organized a pilgrimage to what is now called North America. They boarded the Mayflower in 1620 and set sail for uncharted territory.
Landing on American Shores
Although the Pilgrims and Separatists set out for Virginia, they experienced strong winds and currents that eventually brought them to Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts. Upon landing, they dropped to their knees and gave thanks to the Lord for bringing them safely across the perilous Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, they were far from safe. The Pilgrims and Separatists had to weather the bitterly cold winter months. Unprepared for such drastically low temperatures, they lost almost half of their men that they had sailed with on the Mayflower. Fortunately, the Wampanoag helped the settlers throughout their first winter by offering provisions and guidance.
Meeting the Native Americans
Once winter had passed, the colonists worked hard to prepare enough food to get them through the next winter. God smiled upon the colonists and blessed them with a bountiful harvest. Wishing to thank the Lord for His provision, they feasted for three days. Ninety-one Wampanoag Indians joined the Pilgrims and Separatists for the feast. They celebrated together with a variety of activities like archery, axe throwing, and of course, feasting.
But, the feast was not the smorgasbord that we know today. The settlers most likely did not dine on turkey legs and certainly not warm pumpkin pie. We do know that they ate “fowl,” most likely something tougher and more sinewy than a plump turkey. The pilgrims didn’t live in log cabins or wear funny hats or buckles. They didn’t hunt with those curved blunderbusses either. These are all romantic images that have been sold to us by marketers and artists hoping to cash in on the Thanksgiving spirit. In fact, a lot of historians question that the Pilgrims even landed at the Plymouth Rock we normally associate with that famous landing!
Becoming a Nationally Recognized Holiday
Thanksgiving was not an annual event yet. In 1623, three years later, the settlers prayed during a devastating drought that the Lord would provide rain for their crops. When God answered their prayer with a full day of steady rain the next day, the colonists declared another day of thanksgiving. Twenty-three years later, Thanksgiving became a holiday when Edward Rawson, Charlestown, Massachusetts’s city council clerk, signed it into a holiday. A century later, George Washington suggested that America could celebrate a national day of thanksgiving. His colleagues thought it was a silly idea.
Yet another century later, Sara Josepha Hale, a magazine editor, petitioned lawmakers and politicians to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. After forty long years of petitioning, President Abraham Lincoln finally declared that the last Thursday of November would be a national day of thanksgiving.