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In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers (pilgrims). They were looking for a new home in the New World. After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts and began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.
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That first Thankgiving was a tree-day-festival of eating, hunting and other entertainment in honor of the Pilgrims' first successful harvest. The Indians killed 5 deer as gifts for the colonists. But there wasn't any turkey. They also didn't have the pumpkin pie or potatoes which hadn't beed introduced to New England yet, and while men did eat cranberries, they would have been served plain, not in a sauce or relish.
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President George Washington announced the first ever national Thanksgiving holiday, which took place on Thursday November 26th. But it didn't become an annual tradition nationwide until the 19th century.
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An American writer named Sara Josepha Hale, most famous for writing the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb", was inspired by "A Diary of a Pilgrim Life" to recreate that first Thanksgiving feast. In 1827, Hale waged a nearly thirty-year campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday.She also published recipies for pumpkin pie, turkey and stuffing. They probably didn't appear on Pilgrim's' plates, but they would become a staples of modern Thanksgiving meals.
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In 1863, in the midst of the Civil war, President Abraham Lincoln announced that the nation would celebrate Thanksgiving every year on a final Thursday in November.
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In 1941 FDR signed the bill fixing things giving on the fourth Thursday in November, where is stays today. Today nearly 90 percent of Americans eat the bird whether roasted, baked or deep-fried on Thanksgiving, according to the National Turkey Federation. Other traditional foods include stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Volunteering is a common Thanksgiving Day activity, and communities often hold food drives and host free dinners for the less fortunate.
