The History of Thanksgiving

The month of November is known chiefly for the celebration of Thanksgiving. Throughout the month, Broadway Stages will reflect on reasons to be thankful: the people, businesses, and organizations in the neighborhoods where we live and work.

Most of us learned in grade school that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1623 by the pilgrims and the local Native Americans who helped them survive a perilous first year. But there is much more to the story.

Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving every year on the fourth Thursday of Thanksgiving.  But, long before Europeans came to North America, the Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Yuchi, and Iroquois Indians, as well as other Native American tribes, celebrated a fall harvest festival known as the Green Corn Festival. The festivities would vary by tribe and location. But they would all generally have dancing and games topped off with a feast and giving thanks for the bounty they had received.

It is believed that European colonists from the Caribbean to Newfoundland celebrated fall harvest festivals from the beginning of colonization. However, what we have come to recognize as the first Thanksgiving took place in 1623. That year, drought destroyed the crops at Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts. The Pilgrims prayed and fasted for relief, and rain came a few days later. Not long after, Captain Miles Standish arrived with supplies and news that more help was coming. In gratitude, the colonists held a day of Thanksgiving and prayer on June 30. Over the next 150 years, festivals of Thanksgiving were observed sporadically on a local level. However, these tended to be autumn harvest celebrations.

It wasn’t until 1789 that Congress proposed that a day of Thanksgiving be held to give thanks for the opportunity to create a Constitution to preserve their hard-won freedoms. On October 3, 1789, President George Washington proclaimed that the people of the United States observe “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer” on Thursday, the 26th of November.

The three other early Presidents proclaimed some sort of thanksgiving celebration sometime during their terms of office. The trend ended with President James Madison’s proclamation that a day of Thanksgiving would be held on April 13, 1815. The holiday wasn’t officially recognized again until 1863 under President Abraham Lincoln.

Sarah Josepha Hale, Editor of Ladies Magazine and Godey’s Lady’s Book, was a fan of the holiday and determined to return it. For 36 years, from 1827 on, she lobbied for the holiday to return nationwide. 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.

This year, we celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 23.  As we gather with friends and family to celebrate, remember that we have Native Americans and immigrants to thank for the opportunity to observe a day of thanksgiving. But more than that, remember the spirit of the day and be grateful!