Thanksgiving at Plymouth: Obster, Seal and Swans Were On The Pilgrims' Menu

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an
autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first

Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries,
days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It
wasn’t until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham
Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each
November.
THANKSGIVING AT PLYMOUTH
In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth,
England, carrying 102 passengers—an assortment of religious
separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their
faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land
ownership 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 Mayflower crossed MassachusettsBay, where
the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of
establishing a village at Plymouth.
obster, seal and swans were on the Pilgrims' menu.
Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on

board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks
of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers
and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the
remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing
visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English. Several days
later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of
the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain
and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his
homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto taught the Pilgrims,
weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap
from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He
also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local
tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years and tragically remains
one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and
Native Americans.
In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved

successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and
invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including
the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first
Thanksgiving”—although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the
term at the time—the festival lasted for three days. While no record exists
of the historic banquet’s exact menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward
Winslow wrote in his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a
“fowling” mission in preparation for the event, and that the Wampanoag
guests arrived bearing five deer. Historians have suggested that many of
the dishes were likely prepared using traditional Native American spices
and cooking methods. Because the Pilgrims had no oven and the
Mayflower’s sugar supply had dwindled by the fall of 1621, the meal did
not feature pies, cakes or other desserts, which have become a hallmark
of contemporary celebrations.
THANKSGIVING BECOMES AN OFFICIAL

HOLIDAY
Pilgrims held their second Thanksgiving celebration in 1623 to mark the
end of a long drought that had threatened the year’s harvest and
prompted Governor Bradford to call for a religious fast. Days of fasting
and thanksgiving on an annual or occasional basis became common
practice in other New England settlements as well. During the American
Revolution, the Continental Congress designated one or more days of
thanksgiving a year, and in 1789 George Washington issued the first
Thanksgiving proclamation by the national government of the United
States; in it, he called upon Americans to express their gratitude for the
happy conclusion to the country’s war of independence and the
successful ratification of the U.S. Constitution. His successors John
Adams and James Madison also designated days of thanks during their
presidencies.
In 1817, New York became the first of several states to officially adopt an
annual Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day,
however, and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the
tradition. In 1827, the noted magazine editor and prolific writer Sarah
Josepha Hale—author, among countless other things, of the nursery
rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”—launched a campaign to establish
Thanksgiving as a national holiday. For 36 years, she published
numerous editorials and sent scores of letters to governors, senators,
presidents and other politicians. Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her
request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation
entreating all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all
those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the
lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” He
scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November, and it was
celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when Franklin D.
Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in an attempt to spur retail sales
during the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s plan, known derisively as
Franksgiving, was met with passionate opposition, and in 1941 the
president reluctantly signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth
Thursday in November.
THANKSGIVING TRADITIONS
In many American households, the Thanksgiving celebration has lost
much of its original religious significance; instead, it now centers on
cooking and sharing a bountiful meal with family and friends. Turkey, a
Thanksgiving staple so ubiquitous it has become all but synonymous with
the holiday, may or may not have been on offer when the Pilgrims hosted
the inaugural feast in 1621. Today, however, 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.
Parades have also become an integral part of the holiday in cities and
towns across the United States. Presented by Macy’s department store
since 1924, New York City’s Thanksgiving Day parade is the largest and
most famous, attracting some 2 to 3 million spectators along its 2.5-mile
route and drawing an enormous television audience. It typically features
marching bands, performers, elaborate floats conveying various
celebrities and giant balloons shaped like cartoon characters.
Beginning in the mid-20th century and perhaps even earlier, the president
of the United States has “pardoned” one or two Thanksgiving turkeys
each year, sparing the birds from slaughter and sending them to a farm
for retirement. A number of U.S. governors also perform the annual turkey
pardoning ritual.
THANKSGIVING’S ANCIENT ORIGINS

Although the American concept of Thanksgiving developed in the
colonies of New England, its roots can be traced back to the other side of
the Atlantic. Both the Separatists who came over on the Mayflower and
the Puritans who arrived soon after brought with them a tradition of
providential holidays—days of fasting during difficult or pivotal moments
and days of feasting and celebration to thank God in times of plenty.
As an annual celebration of the harvest and its bounty, moreover,
Thanksgiving falls under a category of festivals that spans cultures,
continents and millennia. In ancient times, the Egyptians, Greeks and
Romans feasted and paid tribute to their gods after the fall harvest.
Thanksgiving also bears a resemblance to the ancient Jewish harvest
festival of Sukkot. Finally, historians have noted that Native Americans
had a rich tradition of commemorating the fall harvest with feasting and
merrymaking long before Europeans set foot on their shores.

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In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an

autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first

obster, seal and swans were on the Pilgrims' menu.

Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved

THANKSGIVING BECOMES AN OFFICIAL

THANKSGIVING’S ANCIENT ORIGINS

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