Most people refer to the first thanksgiving as the three-day feast in 1621 shared with Wampanoag people and the Plymouth pilgrims. However, this was not the first celebration of its kind. In fact, feasts were routinely held in celebration of successful harvests by many different cultures at this time. The Thanksgiving Americans know today did not start until 1789.
Up until 1789 Thanksgiving was celebrated in different ways on a state level. Puritans celebrated by days of fasting and the actual day of Thanksgiving was a day of prayer and thanks to God. Between 1621 and the early 1700s Thanksgiving was developed into a religious praising holiday however new emigrants began to change this tradition. The newcomer’s families would gather around a dinner table a spend time being thankful for each other and their possessions rather than focusing on religious practices. This began the transformation into a holiday more similar to what is known to be Thanksgiving today.
George Washington declared Thanksgiving to take place on November 26th each year on a national level but the tradition did not catch on until the late 1800s and early 19th century. At this time a woman by the name of Sara Josepha Hale pushed for Thanksgiving to be celebrated nationally and for nearly thirty years she campaigned for Thanksgiving to be declared a National Holiday. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln was persuaded by Hale to declared Thanksgiving a national holiday to unite a country in Civil War. The holiday was set to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November each year. With the exception of two years during the great depression, Thanksgiving has been set to take place on the last Thursday of November every year.
The common foods seen on American tables did not originate at the “first Thanksgiving” either. Turkey was not on the menu for the 1621 feast, instead there was venison, Indian corn, barley, and fowl. Turkey was not introduced to the holiday until the 1900s. Recipes for things like pumpkin pie and mash potatoes where published by Hale during her campaign and they made their way onto the tables of many families. This helped create the Thanksgiving traditions celebrated and practiced today.
The most recent and by far the wackiest traditions created was the pardoning of a turkey or turkey’s each year. This was started in 1989 by George H.W. Bush and for the past 27 years each US President has pardoned a turkey on Thanksgiving.
