A Thanksgiving Day on Cape Cod causes some nostalgia.
As you and your family prepare to feast on turkey and more, take a moment to remember what the first Thanksgiving might have been like. On Cape Cod, the first Thanksgiving holiday could have happened just miles away, right in Plymouth, MA.
Thanksgiving Facts
Many historians have stated that the Wampanoag Indians and the Plymouth settlers shared a fall harvest festival together in 1621. This became a symbol of the interaction and cooperation between Native Americans and English settlers.
Many people believe that this particular holiday is the first Thanksgiving celebration. But the truth is, he really had a long tradition of celebrating appreciation and the harvest for successful rewards from crops.
Historians have also investigated other acts of appreciation among European settlers in North America. This has even included British settlers in the Virginia Berkeley Planation. It was there that some British settlers knelt, prayed, and swore Thanksgiving to God. They gave thanks for arriving safely after the great voyage across the Atlantic. Now some scholars acknowledge that this event marks the first official Thanksgiving in all recorded European settlers.
Thanksgiving celebrations, especially Thanksgiving holidays, symbolize significant significance over time, regardless of whether it is Berkeley Plantation or Plymouth.
What was on the menu?
It’s pretty safe to say that the Pilgrims back then didn’t eat buttered mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. But on the other hand, historians aren’t entirely sure what elements went into an entire Thanksgiving feast.
In 1621 Edward Winslow, in “A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth”, gave a very detailed description of the “First Day of Thanksgiving”:
“When our harvest arrived, our governor sent four men to hunt, so that, in a special way, we could rejoice together after having gathered the fruit of our labor. Four in one day they killed as many birds as, with a little help on the side He served the company for almost a week.At that time, among other recesses, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming among us, and among the others their greatest King Massasoit, with about ninety men, whom we entertained for three days. and they feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and presented to our governor, the captain and others. By the goodness of God, we are so far from need that we often want you to share in our abundance. ” .
Historian Richard Pickering is the deputy director of Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts. According to him, the settler festivals could also have included mussels, lobster, fish, eel, turnips, radishes, corn, and spinach. Wow, it really is a great party!
And Pickering adds, “Oh, and there wasn’t a Thanksgiving pilgrim buckle in sight,”.
Traditional turkey
In modern Thanksgiving celebrations, why are items like pumpkin pies, stuffing, and turkeys so necessary?
Pickering comments on this, “The Thanksgiving Day we practice today has more to do with myth than reality.”. In the 1860s, President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday. The food we eat now on Thanksgiving is more in line with the cuisine of the 1860s, surprisingly.
