Come November and the holiday season mood sets in. Even though Christmas is two months away and Thanksgiving is four weeks away, it still feels like they’re around the corner. Do you sometimes get the feeling that your third grader knows more about Thanksgiving than you? Relax. You’re not alone.
Refresh your memory with these facts about the origin of Thanksgiving and you could ace that third grade quiz!
· Thanksgiving, as we know it was first celebrated by the Plymouth pilgrims who had arrived on the Mayflower. However, long before the pilgrims arrived, Native American tribes practiced the custom of celebrating harvest with a feast.
· Only about half the pilgrims survived and they expressed their gratitude with a thanksgiving feast after the first harvest was completed that fall.
· The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
· The pilgrims invited the neighboring Wampanoag Indians to the feast which lasted three days.
· The harvest meal included deer and wild fowl and not pumpkin pie or turkey.
· The pilgrims did not use forks. They used knives, spoons and their fingers.
· In 1623, during a drought, the pilgrims had allocated a day for fasting and prayer, but rains came during the prayers and turned it into a day of thanksgiving.
· The Continental Congress suggested a yearly day of thanksgiving during the American Revolution.
· In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln appointed the last Thursday of November as national thanksgiving day.
· Since 1939, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.
What started as a day of thanks has become a long weekend almost everyone looks forward to for different reasons. The next post will highlight some of the modern day Thanksgiving traditions and the different ways the holiday is celebrated.
