The Distinctively American Thanksgiving

Coach is Right ^ | 11/24/2011 | Bill McIntosh

[Oldpuppymax]

That “first” Thanksgiving in the autumn of 1621 involving the Pilgrims and members of the Wampanoag Confederacy under Massasoit occurred with many signs of God´s providence.

That three day festival of meals including 5 deer (provided by the some 90 Indians attending); abundant wild game (probably waterfowl and wild turkey); fish, corn and bread was undoubtedly not the very first of celebrations giving thanks to God in the New World as these were a feature of the great Christian piety of the Europeans who came to the Western hemisphere after Columbus.

But the Plymouth culinary event was the celebration most remembered as the quintessential Thanksgiving in the U.S.

Some Hispanics will proudly note a Thanksgiving that was held on Sept. 8th in 1565 in Saint Augustine, Florida. But dear Hispanics, this is not a who gets credit for the first Thanksgiving but for that distinctive and uniquely American one-at Plymouth.

No, Thanksgiving must not be hijacked. Just as America´s survival onto nationhood despite the dangers of its revolution can be ascribed to Divine assistance so to the survival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Their Mayflower Compact was so revolutionary (and which served as an inspiration for later constitutions) and proclaimed:

“IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, ………Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick…”

[hosepipe]

Either you’re thankful.. -OR-

You think someone owes you something..
You know... you “deserve it”.. whatever that is..
“Entitlement” you’re entitled to something..

and believe “as it were” a FREE Lunch...
Utopian Dreams... Bunny Hole Logic.. a vote for Negrodamus..

[Dallas59]

In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition traces its origins to a 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. There is also evidence for an earlier celebration on the continent by Spanish explorers in Texas at San Elizario in 1598, as well as thanksgiving feasts in the Virginia Colony. The initial thanksgiving observance at Virginia in 1619 was prompted by the colonists' leaders on the anniversary of the settlement.
The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. In later years, the tradition was continued by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford who planned a thanksgiving celebration and fast in 1623.
While initially, the Plymouth colony did not have enough food to feed half of the 102 colonists, the Wampanoag Native Americans helped the Pilgrims by providing seeds and teaching them to fish. The practice of holding an annual harvest festival like this did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s. According to historian Jeremy Bangs, director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, the Pilgrims may have been influenced by watching the annual services of Thanksgiving for the relief of the siege of Leiden in 1574, while they were staying in Leiden.