Every American knows the basic origin story of Thanksgiving.
English settlers known as the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in December 1620. Half of their group died in the first winter. In the Spring, Squanto, a Christian Native American, taught the Pilgrims how to plant and grow corn. In the Fall of 1621, they had a great harvest and decided to hold three days of feasting and thanksgiving. Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag tribe, came with 90 of his men to celebrate with the Pilgrims. And that was the ‘First Thanksgiving.’
But how did such a small event held in Plymouth, Massachusetts, over 400 years ago become a National All-American Holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November every year? Well, here’s that story.
From Plymouth to the Nation
Thanksgiving remained a New England regional holiday for 168 years. The Puritans settling Boston (Puritans are NOT Pilgrims) moved the Day of Thanksgiving into late November, which is far from early October harvest time. The Puritans used Thanksgiving as a stand-in for Christmas, which they did not celebrate, believing it to be pagan. Instead, the Puritans gave thanks to God for all the blessings of the prior year. It was a time of feasting before the long, cold New England winter set in.
As more settlers came and America’s colonies increased, each colony would declare its own Thanksgiving Day on different dates, usually in the Fall and always on a Thursday. During the Revolutionary War, Thanksgiving Days were declared ‘nationally’ for all Thirteen Colonies. The Continental Congress declared the First National Day of Thanksgiving for Thursday, December 18, 1777.
After the end of the Revolutionary War and the adoption of the United States Constitution in 1789, the first president, George Washington, declared the first nationwide Day of Thanksgiving to be celebrated in the brand-new country. There was no mention of the Pilgrims in the first Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation.
President Washington’s Proclamation 1789
‘Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor– and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.’
Still Just a New England Holiday
After George Washington’s proclamation in 1789, no national Thanksgiving Day was declared again until 1815, when James Madison declared a Day of Thanksgiving for the end of the War of 1812. In New England, however, the states did continue the traditional Thanksgiving Day celebrations, although the dates from year to year and state to state often differed.
Thanksgiving took the place of Christmas as nearly no one in New England celebrated Christmas. During this time, there was also no historical connection to the Pilgrims. According to James Baker in his wonderful book, Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday, he writes…
“Holiday traditions were simple and unpretentious, focusing on the immediate basics of New England life: church, household, food, and domestic leisure. It was time to review the current year, reminisce about one’s personal past, and recall family members and friends who were not guests due to distance or death.”
Sarah Josepha Hale, the “Mother” of Thanksgiving
In 1837, Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of a very prominent women’s publication called Godey’s Lady’s Book, began advocating for one national day of Thanksgiving to be held in every state and territory on the last Thursday of November.
She wrote numerous editorials on the subject in Godey’s, as well as writing to all the state governors every year, requesting they declare Thanksgiving on the same day. By 1860, she got her wish. Thanksgiving was declared by every governor for the last day of November in all 30 states and two territories.
She wrote, “We may now consider Thanksgiving a National Holiday… It is to be a regularly recurring Festival, appointed by the concert of the State Governments to be observed on the last day in November, may be established as the American Thanksgiving Day… the day would exemplify the joy of Christians and to our Great Republic… as one Brotherhood, will rejoice together, and give thanks to God for our National, State and Family blessings.”
There was still no mention or recognition of the Pilgrims’ ‘First Thanksgiving.’
Civil War and the National Adoption of Thanksgiving
In 1860, the Civil War broke out in the United States, and the first ‘national’ declaration of Thanksgiving was made. But it was President Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Congress that proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving for the South for July 28, 1861 after their victory at the Battle of Bull Run. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln declared a national day of Thanksgiving for the North after their victories. Back and forth the two sides went, declaring national days of Thanksgiving after battle victories.
On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation officially declaring the last Thursday in November as a day of Thanksgiving. No longer would it be up to individual governors to declare the date.
President Lincoln’s Proclamation 1863
“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States… to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”
The Pilgrim Story Becomes Popular
It wasn’t until the end of the 19th century that the Pilgrims’ First Thanksgiving story began to attract the attention of the entire nation. In 1889, a novel written by Jane G. Austin, Standish by Standish, romanticized the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving as an outdoor feast between the Pilgrims and their Wampanoag neighbors. It was a bestseller.
In 1897, the Ladies Home Journal, featured a ‘historical’ description of the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving relying heavily on Ms. Austin’s sentimental novel.
Still, there was no mention of the Pilgrims in presidential proclamations until Theodore Roosevelt in 1905, who referenced “the first settlers.”
President Theodore Roosevelt’s Proclamation 1905
“When nearly three centuries ago the first settlers came to the country which has now become this great Republic, they fronted not only hardship and privation, but terrible risk to their lives. In those grim years the custom grew of setting apart one day in each year for a special service of thanksgiving to the Almighty for preserving the people through the changing seasons. The custom has now become national and hallowed by immemorial usage…
Therefore, I now set apart Thursday, the thirtieth day of this November, as a day of thanksgiving for the past and of prayer for the future, and on that day I ask that throughout the land the people gather in their homes and places of worship, and in rendering thanks unto the Most High for the manifold blessings of the past year, consecrate themselves to a life of cleanliness, honor and wisdom, so that this nation may do its allotted work on the earth in a manner worthy of those who rounded it and of those who preserved it.”
A Change of Thursdays
It was in the next 50 years, after Teddy Roosevelt’s nod to the Pilgrims, that the American traditions of Thanksgiving came into focus –Pilgrims and Natives celebrating together, families returning home, turkeys, pumpkins, parades, football, and even the start of the Christmas holiday shopping.
But in 1939, Thanksgiving occurred on November 30th, the last Thursday of November. Retailers were worried that this would cut short the Christmas shopping season. The Retail Dry Goods Association appealed to President Franklin Roosevelt to change the date, and the president proclaimed the fourth Thursday as Thanksgiving Day.
Many states, however, were not happy with the break in tradition. Half of the states went with the last Thursday declared by President Lincoln. Half went with President Roosevelt’s new date, which was nicknamed ‘Franksgiving.’ But the earlier date did not improve Christmas sales. Even so, Congress went ahead and passed a law in 1941 declaring the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
After the change, according to Plymouth Historian James Baker, “the Thanksgiving holiday quietly assumed its place in the regular round of American holidays. The holiday was at last as Mrs. Hale had wished, legally sanctified and nationally guaranteed. During this same period the association of Thanksgiving with Plymouth and the Pilgrims was fully realized.”
Presidential Proclamations and the Pilgrims
It’s customary for presidents to issue a Thanksgiving Proclamation asking the country to give thanks for our blessings. Some proclamations hearken back to the Pilgrims; most do not. Yet the legacy of the Pilgrims’ First Thanksgiving lives on today to give thanks for what God has done for us.
Here are four more Presidential Proclamations that honor the Pilgrims and their obedience in following God to a new land – “for the glory of God, and the advancement of the Christian faith” – as Elder William Brewster declared in the Mayflower Compact.
President Truman’s Proclamation 1951
“More than three centuries ago the Pilgrim fathers deemed it fitting to pause in their autumn labors and to give thanks to Almighty God for the abundant yield of the soil of their new homeland. In keeping with that custom, hallowed by generations of observance, our hearts impel us, once again in this autumnal season, to turn in humble gratitude to the Giver of our bounties.”
President Kennedy’s Proclamation 1962
“Over three centuries ago in Plymouth, on Massachusetts Bay, the Pilgrims established the custom of gathering together each year to express their gratitude to God for the preservation of their community and for the harvests their labors brought forth in the new land. Joining with their neighbors, they shared together and worshipped together in a common giving of thanks. Thanksgiving Day has ever since been part of the fabric which has united Americans with their past, with each other, and with the future of all mankind.
President Ronald Reagan, 1981
On this day of thanksgiving, it is appropriate that we recall the first thanksgiving, celebrated in the autumn of 1621. After surviving a bitter winter, the Pilgrims planted and harvested a bountiful crop. After the harvest they gathered their families together and joined in celebration and prayer with the native Americans who had taught them so much.
Let us renew the spirit of the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving, lonely in an inscrutable wilderness, facing the dark unknown with a faith borne of their dedication to God and a fortitude drawn from their sense that all men were brothers.”
President Donald Trump, 2019
“On Thanksgiving Day, we remember with reverence and gratitude the bountiful blessings afforded to us by our Creator, and we recommit to sharing in a spirit of thanksgiving and generosity with our friends, neighbors, and families. Nearly four centuries ago, determined individuals with a hopeful vision of a more prosperous life and an abundance of opportunities made a pilgrimage to a distant land. These Pilgrims embarked on their journey across the Atlantic at great personal risk, facing unforeseen trials and tribulations, and unforetold hardships during their passage… and through their unwavering resolve and resilience, the Pilgrims enjoyed a bountiful harvest the following year. That first Thanksgiving provided an enduring symbol of gratitude that is uniquely sewn into the fabric of our American spirit.”
Happy Thanksgiving. God bless you!
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations. (Psalm 100:4-5)
Share your prayers of thanksgiving in the comments below.
Belinda Brewster lives in Plymouth, MA, America’s Hometown, with her husband, Wrestling, a 10th-generation direct descendant of Elder William Brewster, the spiritual leader of the Pilgrims. She and Wrestling attend Chiltonville Congregational Church, which is the third daughter church of the first church established by the Pilgrims. Belinda is a contributing writer for IFA. Photo Credit: Jean Leon Gerome Ferris.
Source: Pilgrims, Presidents, and Proclamations of Thanksgiving
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