Thanksgiving Myths

Myth #1: The happy Pilgrims were celebrating a great harvest
Actually, the harvest of 1621, when the legend of our Thanksgiving began, wasn't great at all. The barley, wheat, and peas the Pilgrims brought with them from England had failed. Fortunately, the corn did well enough that they were able to double their weekly food rations. The Pilgrims were happy to be alive: The previous winter had wiped out 47 people--almost half their community.

It wasn't a coincidence that the corn did well. A man named Squanto, who was a member of the Wampanoag tribe, coached the Pilgrims on how to plant and fertilize it.

Did You Know?
Squanto's life story would make a great movie. He grew up on the same land that the Pilgrims inhabited. Before their arrival, he befriended a British explorer named John Weymouth, who taught him English. Later, Squanto was captured and sold into slavery in Spain. With the help of a Spanish priest, Squanto reconnected with Weymouth, who helped him return to his homeland. But by the time he arrived, his village had been wiped out by the plague, which had been brought by the slave traders. Later, Squanto helped the Pilgrims when he saw them struggling in his abandoned ancestral home.
What's more:
The guests brought most of the food. When the Pilgrims invited their Native American guests, they weren't prepared to feed everyone who came. A Wampanoag chief, Massasoit, sent his men home for supplies.
The party lasted three days. They played games, shot guns, shot bows and arrows, and played something called "stool ball." (It's not what it sounds like! The game was like croquet--not something they played because they didn't have a pigskin handy.)
Despite what you see in some paintings, the Native American guests didn't wear giant feathered headdresses. Those were worn by Plains Indians.
Myth #2: From then on, we've celebrated Thanksgiving every year
The truth is, the Pilgrims weren't partiers, and they didn't always feel compelled to express their thanks. In fact, the Pilgrims didn't have another "thanksgiving" celebration until two years later, when they held a feast to celebrate the end of a drought.

According to Celebrations: The Complete Book of American Holidays, by Robert J. Meyers, many colonial communities probably celebrated successful harvests locally and gave thanks at special times as the need arose. In 1644, for example, the New Amsterdam Dutch held "Thank Days" in gratitude for the safe return of their soldiers, who had been fighting with Native Americans in Connecticut.

George Washington declared a Thanksgiving in 1789 after the United States first established a government, but Thanksgiving didn't go national until the mid-19th century. This was largely the work of magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, who conducted a letter-writing campaign calling for Thanksgiving to be declared a national holiday. President Lincoln responded, issuing a Thanksgiving proclamation that set aside the last Thursday in November of 1863 for gratitude.

In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt touched off a two-year squabble when he moved the holiday to the third Thursday to give store owners a leg up on holiday shopping. Detractors dubbed the relocated holiday "Franksgiving," and in 1941 Congress finally made the fourth Thursday in November the official day. So, in truth, it took 320 years to make Thanksgiving stick.

Myth #3: The United States invented Thanksgiving
No country does gluttony quite like the United States. The Calorie Control Council, an industry group, says that Americans consume as much as 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving, as much as twice what the FDA recommends for an entire day. That said, humans have been holding harvest festivals for ages. We may wish we invented Thanksgiving, but we didn't.

In ancient times, Middle Eastern peoples offered wheat to "The Great Mother" or "Mother of the Wheat." In medieval times, central Europeans celebrated their harvests at Feast of Saint Martin on November 11th. And we can all be thankful our celebrations aren't like those of the Aztecs, who each year would behead a young girl representing Xilonen, the corn goddess.

Colorful traditions aside, human beings have found reasons to be thankful--and reasons to celebrate--for as long as we can trace our history. What people have felt thankful for has certainly changed over the years. The Pilgrims were happy to be alive. The Founding Fathers were happy to have established a government. And Lincoln's Thanksgiving proclamation expressed thanks that the Civil War had not destroyed the country.

So when you sit down this year with your family, you're participating in an ancient tradition. And it's a great time to figure out what you're thankful for.