The First Time That Indians And Pilgrims Celebrated Thanksgiving


by Dominique Halet - Date: 2008-11-12 - Word Count: 561 Share This!

The legend is that in the colony of Plymouth, during the year 1621, Wampanoag Indians joined the English settlers in order to celebrate the bounties from the rich earth in a wonderful autumn harvest banquet. The 20th century considered this event as the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the early days of the colonies. Although this ancient celebration is regarded as the first Thanksgiving feast; it is just one of the many celebrations of the harvest season and human gratefulness for the bounties of Mother nature. Many Native American groups of what would become known as America, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Shawnee, Huron, Creek, Blackfoot and many others would organized great harvest festivals, consisting in ceremonial dances, races, games and some more cheerful celebrations of gratefulness hundreds of years before the arrival of the European peoples.

If you are like me, you are surely wondering the kind of meals served at the harvest banquet. Historians, as usual, are not one hundred percent certain about the subject; however they are sure that pilgrims weren't baking pumpkin pies nor building castle towers with mashed potatoes. Nevertheless, there is no listing of the foods commonly available to the settlers during this period of time; but the only two items that historians can say with any real certainty that were on the table are venison and different types wild poultry like duck, goose, and wild turkey. Although there are hundreds of manuscripts describing such feast, the most circumstancial report of this celebration of late harvest date of 1621 and was written by a man named Edward Winslow. It is from his written account titled "A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth" that historians have collected the greatest part of information about this early Thanksgiving celebration:

"...Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty..." - Edward Winslow, 1595-1655.

Nowadays, the common Thanksgiving banquet is focused around the turkey, but this was not the case at this early Thanksgiving banquet. Vegetable dishes did not enter widely in the composition of the meals during the 17th century. This is the reason why colonists ate several different meats. The numerous types of vegetables we eat in any season today were not available to the colonists. Freezing methods did not exist; which means that the vegetable consumption was based on harvest seasons. During the 1600's, the lack of freezing methods ways also forced the colonists and Wampanoag to dry their foods to preserve them. And so, they dried corn, wild boar ham, fish and venison as well as a lot of herbs.

Related Tags: food, thanksgiving, turkey, pilgrims, colonists, harvest season, grateful celebration, wampanoag, bountiful

D. Halet is an European history, Holidays and Tarot Cards passionate; she writes articles and creates websites dedicated to these subjects.For more info Thanksgiving, visit Grateful Thanksgiving and receive a Free Grateful Thanksgiving Guide.

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