Jeremy Bangs, director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum in the Netherlands, said the idea of a “thankless or secular harvest festival was unthinkable.” ‘These are people who would have given thanks’īut that doesn’t mean the “First Thanksgiving” was a secular celebration, argue some historians. “The very nature of a celebration, extending over several days or a week with secular ‘recreations’ and non-Christian guests,” Baker writes in the Encyclopedia of American Holidays and National Days, “is what pious Calvinists such as the Pilgrims would be first to protest had no place in any Christian holy day.” Baker, a former senior historian at the Plimouth Plantation in Massachusetts. The Pilgrims would never have thrown such a party on a proper day of thanksgiving, according to James W.
They shot fowl, played games, feasted and entertained nearly 90 Native American neighbors with a gun, er, musket show. The Pilgrims partied for almost a week in the fall of 1621, according to eyewitness accounts. Bruchac in their book, “1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving.” “The 1621 gathering in Plymouth was not a religious gathering but most likely a harvest celebration much like those the English had known in farming communities back home,” write Catherine O’Neill Grace and Margaret M. In fact, some historians even call it a “secular event.” That’s why some historians believe the 1621 celebration that’s sometimes dubbed the “First Thanksgiving,” was not actually a “thanksgiving” day at all. They brewed beer, feasted on fowl and enjoyed sex - all in moderation, of course. When God provided, the Pilgrims were serious about gratitude.ĭespite their reputation as buckle-belted killjoys, the Puritans and Pilgrims knew how to have a good time. Work and playful pastimes were forbidden. The Pilgrims’ days of thanksgiving were usually spent in church, singing psalms, listening to sermons and praying.
“It assumes that God is going to be good to you each particular year.” They would have considered it presumptuous to schedule a thanksgiving day in advance, said Francis Bremer, an emeritus professor of history at Millersville University in Pennsylvania. When friends arrived from overseas, European Protestants defeated Catholics in battle, or a bumper crop was reaped, the Pilgrims dedicated a day to thanking divine Providence. Leave the libations alone.įor the Pilgrims and Puritans, “thanksgiving” days were spontaneous and sober affairs. If you want to prepare for Thanksgiving like a real Pilgrim this year, here’s what you should do: Cancel the plane reservations.
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