History of Thanksgiving Holiday

Most Americans are familiar with the 1621 Pilgrim's Thanksgiving Feast, but not as well known is that it was not the first festival of its kind in North America. Long before Europeans set foot on the North American continent, indigenous natives sought to insure a good harvest with dances and rituals such as the Green Corn Dance of the Cherokees.

The first Thanksgiving service known to be held by Europeans in North America occurred on May 27, 1578, in what is now Newfoundland, Canada, although earlier Church-type services were probably held by Spaniards in what is now the state of Florida in the United States. However, for British New England, some historians believe that the Popham Colony in Maine conducted a Thanksgiving service in 1607. In the same year, Jamestown colonists gave thanks for their safe arrival, and another service was held in 1610 when a supply ship arrived after a harsh winter. British colonists held several Thanksgiving services in America before the Pilgrim's celebration in 1621.

The Pilgrims, with a puritanical rejection of public religious display, held a non-religious Thanksgiving feast with the one religious exception of saying grace. They seem to have used the three days for feasting, playing games, and even drinking liquor.

In 1623, the Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts, held another day of Thanksgiving. As a drought was destroying their crops, colonists fasted and prayed for relief. The rains came a few days later. Shortly after, Captain Miles Standish arrived with some staples and news that a Dutch supply ship was on its way. Because of all this good fortune, colonists held a day of Thanksgiving and prayer on June 30. This festival appears to have been the origin of our Thanksgiving Day because it combined religious and social celebrations.

Local Thanksgiving festivals occurred sporadically for more than 150 years. They tended to be autumn harvest celebrations. In 1789, Elias Boudinot, member of the House of Representatives from Massachusetts, moved that a day of Thanksgiving be held to thank God for giving the American people the opportunity to create a Constitution to preserve their hard won freedoms. A Congressional Joint Committee approved the motion, and informed President George Washington. On October 3, 1789, President Washington proclaimed that the people of the United States observe "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer" to be held on Thursday, November 26.

The next three Presidents proclaimed, at most, two days of thanksgiving sometime during their terms of office, either on their own initiative or at the request of a joint Resolution of Congress. One exception was Thomas Jefferson, who believed it was a conflict of church and state to require the American people hold a day of prayer and thanksgiving. President James Madison proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving to be held on April 13, 1815, the last such proclamation issued by a President until Abraham Lincoln in 1862.

Most of the credit for the establishment of an annual Thanksgiving holiday should be given to Sarah Josepha Hale. Editor of Ladies Magazine and Godey's Lady's Book. She began to campaign for such a day in 1827 by printing articles in the magazines. She also published stories and recipes, and wrote scores of letters to governors, senators, and presidents. After 36 years of crusading, she won her battle. On October 3, 1863, buoyed by the Union victory at Gettysburg, President Lincoln proclaimed that November 26 would be a national Thanksgiving Day, to be observed every year on the fourth Thursday of November.

The president has changed the day of observation on only two occasions. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in order to give depression-era merchants more selling days before Christmas, assigned the third Thursday to be Thanksgiving Day in 1939 and 1940. But he was met with popular resistance, largely because the change required rescheduling Thanksgiving Day events such as football games and parades. In 1941, a Congressional Joint Resolution officially set the fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday for Thanksgiving.

Today, Thanksgiving is a time when families come together and many churches open for special services. We have both Native Americans and immigrants to thank for the observation of a day for thanksgiving.