The Roots of Thanksgiving

For three days in the autumn of 1621, members of Plymouth Colony celebrated their first harvest in the New World. Ninety Wampanoag Indians joined them in this rare moment of felicity. In the words of Edward Winslow, a participant, the feast was held "…so we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors."

There are only two contemporary accounts of the event — Winslow's letter to a friend and a later, more oblique reference in a history written by the colony's governor, William Bradford. Each of them consists of a single brief paragraph and neither mentions the word Thanksgiving. These men could not have known that their meager accounts would be parsed and probed by historians and others eager to embrace anything that could add luster to a fledgling country's history, thereby inflating this simple harvest feast into an American holiday of mythic proportions.

• It lasted three days and took place sometime between September 21 and November 11, 1621.
• It was attended by 50 to 52 colonists, mostly women and children, who had survived the previous winter of near starvation and disease — about half their original number.
• 90 Wampanoag Indians and their chief, Massasoit, also attended and supplied 5 deer.
• Tisquantum, or Squanto, a Wampanoag Indian, served as interpreter. He had been kidnapped in 1605 and brought to England as a curiosity, where he learned English and returned to New England in 1619.
• The food was limited to wild game (fish, fowl and animals) and the few crops they'd managed to grow in a hostile environment.

The Making of a Myth

The two sparse accounts of this obscure secular celebration lay neglected in the dustbin of history for 220 years, until resurrected by a clergyman and then championed by an influential editor as the First Thanksgiving.

The idea of a day of Thanksgiving as a holiday was first acknowledged by President George Washington, when he proclaimed November 26, 1789, a national day of thanksgiving. This was a one-time affair, held in gratitude for the hard-won independence from Great Britain, but the notion of an annual thanksgiving day blossomed and was subsequently adopted by several states and the Episcopal Church.

Then, in 1841, Alexander Young, a clergyman and amateur historian, published a discourse entitled Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth from 1602 to 1625, in which he included Edward Winslow's letter. To that small portion of the letter that mentioned the harvest festival, Young appended the following footnote:

"This was the first Thanksgiving, the harvest festival of New England. On this occasion, they no doubt feasted on the wild turkey as well as venison."

This rather presumptuous footnote provided the first connection between that long-ago festival and an idea whose time had come.

That idea's cause was taken up by Sara Josepha Hale, then editor of Godey's Lady's Book and a major influence in American social and women's issues throughout the middle of the 19th century. In a campaign that lasted nearly twenty years and freely embellished the facts of the Pilgrim's festival, Sara Hale finally persuaded President Lincoln to proclaim the last Thursday in November, 1863, as the first annual national holiday of Thanksgiving. That designated day remained until 1941, when Congress moved it to the fourth Thursday in November to expand the Christmas shopping season and resolve conflicts with state holidays.

Sara Hale's effort succeeded in establishing a national holiday that she believed would help heal the nation's wounds of Civil War. Regardless of its makeshift beginnings and tenuous underpinnings, Thanksgiving Day serves a genuine need for family reunion and renewal. It's a holiday that encompasses both contemplation and rejoicing as well as everything in between.

The Feast — Fact and Fable

Food was central to the Pilgrim's festival in 1621 and it still commands center stage at today's holiday. Food is also part and parcel of the myths and misperceptions surrounding that original feast. Many believe that the Pilgrims and Indians gorged on huge turkeys, sweet potatoes, corn-on-the-cob and pumpkin pie. The reality was quite different. Here's a list of foods that were likely available to them:

• Venison – In his letter, Winslow states that the Indians supplied 5 deer.
• Fowl – goose, duck, partridge, wild turkey, crane and swan. Wild turkeys were much smaller and tougher than today's large-breasted specimens.
• Fish and Seafood – eels, cod, herring, shad, bass, oysters, clams, lobsters.
• Grain – Indian corn, cornmeal, barley, wheat.
• Vegetables – small amounts of peas, squash, beans, onions and leeks.
• Fruits – berries, grapes, plums and cherries; harvested in the wild and dried for preservation.
• Nuts – acorns, chestnuts, hickory nuts, walnuts.

Additionally, they probably had access to maple syrup, honey and small quantities of butter and eggs. All the meats and seafood were either roasted on spits over an open fire or baked in coals since they had no ovens. Boiling was another possible method.

The Pilgrims did not have sweet potatoes, which had not yet been introduced to that part of the world; corn-on-the-cob or popcorn because Indian corn was only good for making cornmeal; or sauces or pies because they had no sugar or means to make piecrust.

To our eyes, the Pilgrim's feast would appear a mean and paltry affair, but to them it must have been sumptuous, perhaps even prodigal, a victory of man over nature, a brief respite from hardship and conflict with their Indian neighbors — reason enough to rejoice.