A Brief History Of Thanksgiving
Most Americans know the basics of the story of Thanksgiving - that in 1621, a group of English Puritans known as the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in present-day Massachusetts, and that after a harsh first winter in which many died, they celebrated a bountiful harvest with a feast that was attended by members of the local Wampanoag tribe. What many people don't know, however, is that the history of Thanksgiving is a lot more complicated than that. Here's a brief (pg) overview of the holiday's murky past.
The first recorded Thanksgiving feast in North America took place in 1578, when English explorer Martin Frobisher held a celebratory meal in present-day Newfoundland to give thanks for surviving his journey across the Atlantic. However, the Pilgrims are generally credited with "inventing" Thanksgiving as we know it today. The story goes that after a brutal winter in which half of their number perished, the Pilgrims had a remarkably successful harvest in 1621. They held a three-day feast to celebrate, and invited their Wampanoag neighbors to join them.
While the idea of Pilgrims and Native Americans sitting down together to break bread might make for a feel-good history lesson, it's important to remember that the relationship between these two groups was far from amicable. In fact, just 50 years after the first Thanksgiving feast, tensions between colonists and Native Americans boiled over into what is now known as King Philip's War - one of the bloodiest conflicts in American history. It wasn't until almost two centuries later, during the Civil War, that Americans began to see Thanksgiving as a unifying force. President Abraham Lincoln declared it a national holiday in 1863. In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great Depression—a decision that was met with so much public backlash that he quickly reversed it. And finally, in 1941, Congress officially established Thanksgiving as a national holiday to be celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of November.?
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Thanksgiving is often portrayed as a feel-good story about cooperation and coming together in the face of adversity. However, the holiday's history is actually much more complicated than that. Thanksgiving has its roots in both English and Native American traditions, and over time it has evolved into the holiday we know and love today. So this year when you're sitting down to enjoy your turkey dinner with family and friends, take a moment to think about all the complex history that lies behind this cherished American tradition.
Happy Thanksgiving
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