The first Thanksgiving was observed on American soil in 1621,
"after the harvest was gotten in." It was celebrated by the
surviving members of the little Plymouth colony who at that time
numbered only 51 and 90 Indians, who were unexpected, but welcome
guests. The menu consisted of such things as clams, eels, and
mussels from the sea, venison and duck from the surrounding
forests, leeks and plums and plenty of corn bread from the ovens of
the homemakers. There was no pumpkin pie or mince pie at this time.
Not until the year 1636 was there a Thanksgiving Day as we have
come to know it now. Church services were then held in the morning.
A feast in every home that could afford one, "with the poorer sort
being invited of the richer" followed this. As time passed,
Thanksgiving, celebrated on the first Thursday in November, became
a much more important traditional holiday and annual social event
in New England life. Pumpkin pie was the most popular item added to
festivities to go along with the wild turkey, venison, fruits and
vegetables of the Puritan's first harvest feast. It was later moved
to the second Thursday in November in 1705 because of a problem
encountered in Colchester, Connecticut. It seems that the town's
supply of molasses had not arrived in time for the local homemakers
to make their Thanksgiving pumpkin pies. Another new table delicacy
was introduced at the Thanksgiving festivities in 1779. The unusual
food was celery. A young woman living in Massachusetts in writing a
letter about the feast had this to say: " ... there was one
(vegetable) which I do not believe you have yet seen. It is called
selery and you can eat it without cooking." The popular
Thanksgiving tradition quickly spread throughout the colonies. On
October 3, 1789, George Washington as President of the new United
States, issued a NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION making
Thanksgiving an official holiday to be held all over the country.
It wasn't until January 1, 1795, that President Washington
officially issued another NATIONAL THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION. It
began thusly: "It is in an especial manner our duty as a people,
with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge
our many and great obligations to Almighty God, and to implore Him
to continue and confirm the blessings we experienced." He further
recommended "all religious societies and denominations, and to all
persons whomsoever within the United States, to set apart and
observe" this special holiday as "a day of public thanksgiving and
prayer." Despite this action by the President, annual Thanksgiving
festivities were still observed almost exclusively throughout New
England for many years. The tradition gradually spread to the new
southern and western states over a period of time. In 1798 and
1799, John Adams was to call for two Thanksgiving observances
during his four year term of office as President. Jefferson,
Monroe, Jackson, Van Buren, Polk, Pierce and Buchanan - all
Presidents who followed - ignored the national significance of
Thanksgiving Day. Then came Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, a year when
our country was in the throes of a bloody Civil War, this man was
to come forth with one of the most famous of all Thanksgiving
proclamations. He officially made the standard date to celebrate as
the last Thursday in November "as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise
to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens ... It has
seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently
and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by
the whole American people."
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