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The
reason that we have so many myths associated with
Thanksgiving is that it is an invented tradition. It
doesn't originate in any one event. It is based on
the New England puritan Thanksgiving, which is a
religious Thanksgiving, and the traditional harvest
celebrations of England and New England and maybe
other ideas like commemorating the pilgrims. All of
these have been gathered together and transformed
into something different from the original parts.
-
James W. Baker, Senior Historian at Plimoth
Plantation
Women
and children
preparing meal
Myth:
The first Thanksgiving was in 1621 and the pilgrims
celebrated it every year thereafter.
Fact:
The first feast wasn't repeated, so it wasn't the
beginning of a tradition. In fact, the colonists
didn't even call the day Thanksgiving. To them, a
thanksgiving was a religious holiday in which they
would go to church and thank God for a specific
event, such as the winning of a battle. On such a
religious day, the types of recreational activities
that the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians participated
in during the 1621 harvest feast--dancing, singing
secular songs, playing games--wouldn't have been
allowed. The feast was a secular celebration, so it
never would have been considered a thanksgiving in
the pilgrims minds.
Myth:
The original Thanksgiving feast took place on the
fourth Thursday of November.
Fact:
The original feast in 1621 occurred sometime between
September 21 and November 11. Unlike our modern
holiday, it was three days long. The event was based
on English harvest festivals, which traditionally
occurred around the 29th of September. After that
first harvest was completed by the Plymouth
colonists, Gov. William Bradford proclaimed a day of
thanksgiving and prayer, shared by all the colonists
and neighboring Indians. In 1623 a day of fasting
and prayer during a period of drought was changed to
one of thanksgiving because the rain came during the
prayers. Gradually the custom prevailed in New
England of annually celebrating thanksgiving after
the harvest.
During
the American Revolution a yearly day of national
thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental
Congress. In 1817 New York State adopted
Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom, and by the
middle of the 19th century many other states had
done the same. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln
appointed a day of thanksgiving as the last Thursday
in November, which he may have correlated it with
the November 21, 1621, anchoring of the Mayflower
at Cape Cod. Since then, each president has issued a
Thanksgiving
Day proclamation. President Franklin D.
Roosevelt set the date for Thanksgiving to the
fourth Thursday of November in 1939 (approved by
Congress in 1941).
Mayflower
ll
undersails
Myth:
The pilgrims wore only black and white clothing.
They had buckles on their hats, garments, and shoes.
Fact:
Buckles did not come into fashion until later in the
seventeenth century and black and white were
commonly worn only on Sunday and formal occasions.
Women typically dressed in red, earthy green, brown,
blue, violet, and gray, while men wore clothing in
white, beige, black, earthy green, and brown.
Myth:
The pilgrims brought furniture with them on the
Mayflower.
Fact:
The only furniture that the pilgrims brought on the
Mayflower was chests and boxes. They constructed
wooden furniture once they settled in Plymouth.
Myth:
The Mayflower was headed for Virginia, but due to a
navigational mistake it ended up in Cape Cod
Massachusetts.
Fact:
The Pilgrims were in fact planning to settle in
Virginia, but not the modern-day state of Virginia.
They were part of the Virginia Company, which had
the rights to most of the eastern seaboard of the
U.S. The pilgrims had intended to go to the Hudson
River region in New York State, which would have
been considered "Northern Virginia," but
they landed in Cape Cod instead. Treacherous seas
prevented them from venturing further south.
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