History of Thanksgiving – Secular
The Thanksgiving story has unfortunately been often been misrepresented in the course of U.S. history. In the past, some history books even distorted the origin of Thanksgiving as far as to say that it was the Pilgrims who saved the Native Americans. Thankfully, in more recent times the history of Thanksgiving has been more adequately delineated, but maybe we’ll never know what really happened during that time. After all, it was such a long time ago and we weren’t there to see it all. Nevertheless, a more objective overview of the history of Thanksgiving exists today.
Practically everyone thinks of Thanksgiving as the time the Pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock, and then got together with the Native Americans and had a feast. Indeed, the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock in 1620 and suffered a bitter winter in which many of the original passengers on the Mayflower passed away. Fortunately, the Native Indians helped the rest of them survive and the year after they were able to have a 3 day feast, though this wasn’t necessarily the holiday that Thanksgiving is now known as since it wasn’t instituted annually yet, and it didn’t occur in the next 5 years. So the history of Thanksgiving leads us further along to 1676, in which Charlestown celebrated the success of their community. The Native Americans didn’t participate in this celebration, and in fact part of the celebration was because of their triumph over the Natives they saw as enemies they had defeated.
A century later, there was a Thanksgiving celebration in honor of defeating the British at Saratoga, and in 1789 George Washington proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving, but many like Thomas Jefferson opposed this. But finally, President Lincoln officially proclaimed Thanksgiving in 1863 after a magazine editor named Sarah Josepha Hale had campaigned for a Thanksgiving holiday for 40 years. Since then, Thanksgiving became an annual event, though the date changed a few times before it settled on the 4th Thursday of November.
Looking back on the history of Thanksgiving, it’s fascinating to see how much the occasion changed over time and how it came to be what it is today. Back then, Thanksgiving happened in relation to specific events but now it’s a regular holiday during which friends and family gather to eat and give thanks. Maybe the rationale behind Thanksgiving has changed, but apparently good food and celebration hasn’t, and it looks like Thanksgiving is here to stay.
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