In the United States, ninety percent of the population celebrates the admired holiday, Thanksgiving. There are many traditions that families celebrate during this holiday such as watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, breaking the turkey wishbone for good luck, running a turkey trot, sharing what they’re thankful for, and of course, eating a prodigious amount of food at Thanksgiving dinner with family. The question is, how did this food-filled and eventful holiday start?
The first Thanksgiving celebration was in 1621 when Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag people gathered to eat a harvest feast. The Pilgrims traveled on a boat called the Mayflower trying to find the “New World” from England. This boat held 102 religious separatists looking for a place where they could practice their faith freely without having to comply with the laws in England. Throughout the winter of the trip to the new land, many of the people contracted fatal illnesses and died.
The surviving Pilgrims made it to Cape Cod and then kept going where they settled in Massachusetts. When the first corn harvest was successful, the Pilgrims had a three-day Thanksgiving dinner with Governor William Bradford and Native American people, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit.
In 1789, George Washington announced that on the last Thursday of November, there would be a national Day of Thanks. This was in order to honor the end of the Revolutionary War and the Constitution being ratified. After that, people started having Thanksgiving dinners, but the day didn’t become an official holiday until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to be celebrated every November as a national holiday.
All in all, because of the Pilgrims’ search for the New World and the celebration of their beliefs and faiths alongside the Native Americans, Americans today have the popular holiday known as Thanksgiving.
