From snopes.com
Legend: An examination of some common beliefs about Thanksgiving.
Origins: Since the day the Pilgrims and Indians celebrated what we consider to be the first Thanksgiving in 1621, we've created an image of that occasion considerably at odds with what probably occurred. Here are some examples of how that long-ago celebration differed from our modern perception of it:
Although the only two contemporary accounts of that first Thanksgiving mention "fowl" and "wild Turkies," the animal we call a turkey was most likely not one of the items on the menu. Those words probably refer to geese, ducks, and pheasants (such as guinea fowl), not the wild North American turkey.
Corn on the cob was another item probably not on the menu, since Indian corn was primarily used only for grinding up into meal.
Pumpkin pie would have been absent as well, since the Pilgrims had no supply of flour. (They could have made something like a pudding from boiled pumpkin sweetened with honey or syrup, however.)
Thanksgiving did not originate with the Pilgrims it was an ancient historical custom they would have been familiar with from England. What the Pilgrims were celebrating was really not a "thanksgiving," an occasion for religious piety and solemnity, but more of a harvest festival full of "revelry, sports, and feast."
Because of a poor harvest the next year (and an influx of settlers in subsequent years), the pilgrims never celebrated another Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving was an irregularly-celebrated holiday in America for over two centuries after that first occasion. The first time all the states in the USA celebrated Thanksgiving together was in 1777, but that was a one-time only affair prompted by the Revolutionary War. Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday celebrated on the last Thursday in November in 1863, and Franklin Roosevelt moved it to the fourth Thursday in November in 1939.
Legend: An examination of some common beliefs about Thanksgiving.
Origins: Since the day the Pilgrims and Indians celebrated what we consider to be the first Thanksgiving in 1621, we've created an image of that occasion considerably at odds with what probably occurred. Here are some examples of how that long-ago celebration differed from our modern perception of it:
Although the only two contemporary accounts of that first Thanksgiving mention "fowl" and "wild Turkies," the animal we call a turkey was most likely not one of the items on the menu. Those words probably refer to geese, ducks, and pheasants (such as guinea fowl), not the wild North American turkey.
Corn on the cob was another item probably not on the menu, since Indian corn was primarily used only for grinding up into meal.
Pumpkin pie would have been absent as well, since the Pilgrims had no supply of flour. (They could have made something like a pudding from boiled pumpkin sweetened with honey or syrup, however.)
Thanksgiving did not originate with the Pilgrims it was an ancient historical custom they would have been familiar with from England. What the Pilgrims were celebrating was really not a "thanksgiving," an occasion for religious piety and solemnity, but more of a harvest festival full of "revelry, sports, and feast."
Because of a poor harvest the next year (and an influx of settlers in subsequent years), the pilgrims never celebrated another Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving was an irregularly-celebrated holiday in America for over two centuries after that first occasion. The first time all the states in the USA celebrated Thanksgiving together was in 1777, but that was a one-time only affair prompted by the Revolutionary War. Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday celebrated on the last Thursday in November in 1863, and Franklin Roosevelt moved it to the fourth Thursday in November in 1939.
