BCM16: Thanksgiving
Posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009
by block club
THANKSGIVING: With Open Arms By Chelsea Craddock
Every year, families get together on the last Thursday of November. Cranberries, stuffing, a giant roasted bird and relatives screaming at the football game on TV are just some of the images that come to mind.
But where did the tradition of Thanksgiving come from? Why do we celebrate?
The first recorded Thanksgiving in the U.S. actually took place in what is now St. Augustine, Fla. on Sept. 8, 1565. Six hundred Spanish settlers led by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés threw a celebration to thank God for allowing them to safely arrive in the Americas.
The Thanksgiving we celebrate today, however, is based on an event in 1621 in Plymouth Plantation, Mass. The same event that we learn about in grade school pageants and on televised parades.
1620 was a tough year for the new English settlers in this country. They lost a lot in a year of bad crops and over 50 pilgrims died through the harvest season. A good harvest in 1621 seemed to turn their luck around though. Squanto, a Patuxet Indian who had learned English as a slave in England, helped the English grow corn and taught them to catch eel. In celebration, the settlers of Plymouth decided to throw a party, thanking God for their change in fortune. The governor, Edward Winslow, ordered men to catch birds to feast on, which included wild turkey.
The tribe Squanto resided with, the Wampanoag, had a rough previous year as well. Disease nearly exterminated their people. When the Wampanoagans noticed the celebration, they decided to join in. The leader of the Wampanoag, Massasoit, and his tribe, brought five dear which they had killed to the English as a sign of peace and celebration.
As the Indians had outnumbered the British by almost 2-to-1, it was important that their presence be felt as a way of being welcomed to the neighborhood, so to speak, as opposed to a hostile meeting. The harvest feast lasted for the next three days.
Although we know the event happened, a lot is unknown about specific details. Myths of what really happened during that feast have circulated ever since, some versions involving warmer accounts than other. However, it is believed that in addition to the feast, the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims enjoyed entertainment as well as each other’s company.
Today, the feast celebrates the bounty of a good year’s harvest as well as family and togetherness. Like the original event, it’s a time to come together with friends and loved ones to express joy in food, in fun and in family.
