Some Things I Know About Thanksgiving

These are things that I know about Thanksgiving.

• Some would say that the Pilgrims didn't have much to be thankful for. Half of them died in the first year.

• Cranberries were not served at the first Thanksgiving. Pumpkin Pie was not served. The Pilgrims had no sugar for these things. It is also VERY unlikely that there was any turkey. The pilgrims did shoot some foul, but it is very unlikely that turkey was one of them. The main meat was provided by the Wampanoag Native American participants... they provided deer which was prepared boiled with vegetables.

• What we call the first Thanksgiving was not a feast of  thanks at all. It was most likely a harvest celebration that was also used as a peace understanding between the settlers and the Native Americans of the area. The Pilgrims didn't celebrate thanks to God with feasting, their days of thanksgiving were days of fasting.

• The settlers were not called Puritans. Puritans were a separate group that didn't agree with all the practices of the Church Of England, but stayed within the church. The people that we call the Pilgrims were Separatists from the church.

• The Pilgrims were constantly being taken advantage of by the people who financed their expedition. 

• The Pilgrims were not trying to break away from England. They considered themselves proud English people, they just wanted to be able to worship according to their conscience (which they could not do in England). The Mayflower Compact was not seen by it's signers to be any precursor to democracy or a new way of government. It was to make sure that  the settlers that were there purely for profit and the settlers that were there for religious reasons were united in their goals. There is also some evidence that there was talk of a mutiny. This document helped squelch it.

• The Pilgrims probably did not land at Plymouth Rock. They were actually anchored about a mile offshore. It is unlikely that they approached land via the rock. It would have been more difficult to go over the rock than not go over it. There is no mention of the rock in any account of the time. The rock was identified as the place they came ashore by the third leader of the colony when he was in his '90s.

For being an invented tradition, Thanksgiving is a pretty wonderful thing. Regardless of religion or ethnic background all are invited to participate. Although Thanksgiving is often overshadowed by the commercial behemoth known as Christmas, we should hold in mind what the holiday is supposed to be. Rather than being the beginning of the buying season, it is a time for being with family and loved ones. It is a time to be thankful for the good things we have.