Origins of Thanksgiving in the United States in America
The First Thanksgiving by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris by artmasters
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What is the Meaning of Thanksgiving?
Although that long ago feast is considered by most people to the first Thanksgiving celebration, it was, in fact, part of a long standing tradition of celebrating the seasonal harvest and giving thanks for a good bounty of crops that would last through the long hard winter.
Many Native American tribes of what would become known as America, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Shawnee, Huron, Creek, Blackfoot and many others would hold great harvest festivals, complete with ceremonial dances, races, games and other happy celebrations of thankfulness many centuries before the arrival of the European peoples.
Photo: Set Of Man And Woman Thanksgiving Pilgrim Figurines
What Kind of Food was on a Harvest Table in the Past?
Ever wonder what sort of feast was laid out on the table at the harvest feast?
While most historians can not be one hundred percent certain about what was served, it's a pretty safe bet to say the pilgrims weren't sucking down pumpkin pie or building castle towers with the mashed potatoes.
Photo: Turkey on Pumpkin: Tom a' Plenty
What did the Early Settlers Eat on Thanksgiving?
'The Meal' - Paul Gauguin Print by SolPacifico
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Here is a good listing of the foods commonly available to the colonists around the time period; but the only two items that historians can state with any real certainty that were on the table are venison and several types wild fowl, such as duck, goose, and wild turkey. These have been mentioned in various written sources of the time. The best, and most detailed, description of the harvest feast of 1621 was written by a man named Edward Winslow. It is from his written account called “A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth” that historians have gleaned much of the information about this early Thanksgiving celebration.
Typical Thanksgiving Table
"...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...”
Thanksgiving Table Nowadays
Thanksgiving Dinner by YesterdayCafe
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Today, the usual Thanksgiving dinner is focused around the turkey, but that was not at all the case at this early 'thanksgiving' feast. The meals of the early settlers would have included many different meats. Vegetable dishes were not a large part of the meals of the seventeenth century settlers.
The many types of vegetables we take for granted today weren't available to the colonists. They had no refrigeration and most vegetables were only to be had on a seasonal basis. Because the pilgrims and Wampanoag tribe had no refrigeration in the 1600s, they dried a lot of their foods to preserve them. They would dry corn, wild boar hams, fish, venison, and many wild herbs.
