In the early 1600s, a group of English people separated themselves from the Church of England. At that time, it was against the law for English citizens not to attend church services. Facing persecution at worst and ridicule at best, the group of Separatists fled to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, they were free to worship as they chose, but they faced other problems. They began to blend in with the Dutch people and they felt that their new religion faced extinction if they stayed in Holland.
There had been several voyages by English settlers and explorers to the New World across the sea. There had even been a colony successfully planted in the area known as Virginia. The Separatists decided that the only way that they could worship and preserve their religion was to travel to the New Land and begin their own colony. They began plans for the voyage in 1617 and set sail for the New World in 1620.
They sailed for sixty-five days on a boat called the Mayflower and endured at least one terrible storm. There was talk of turning back, but they continued, and when they reached the New World, only one person had died during the trip.
When the voyage began, there were 120 people aboard the boat, only some of them Separatists. There were arguments between the two groups and the Separatists referred to themselves as “saints” and to the others as “strangers”. By the time they landed in Massachusetts, they had banded together and called themselves “Pilgrims”.
It is a good thing that the Saints and the Strangers decided to work together, because that first winter was brutal and killed more than half of them. By March, only forty-seven of the original 120 were still alive. The whole group had become so sick that only a handful of people were credited for keeping the survivors alive. If they had remained divided, it is likely that all of them would have died.
After the hard winter, the Pilgrims went to work. They made friends with the Native American Indians of the area. Two of whom already knew English: Samoset and Squanto. These two, particularly Squanto, provided vital help, In fact, the Pilgrims probably wouldn’t have survived without them. The most important thing Squanto taught the Pilgrims was how to farm corn, using fish as fertilizer.
After the Pilgrims harvested their crops in October, they were very thankful. They had enough of everything to help them survive the coming winter. To celebrate the harvest and to thank the Indians who had helped them, the Pilgrims threw a big party. They invited Squanto and his chief, Massasoit to the celebration. About ninety other natives joined them. The Pilgrims and Indians feasted and celebrated for three days. They played games, ate, danced, played music, and ate some more. It is that celebration that we think of as the first Thanksgiving.
There is, however, a little more to the story. The next fall the harvest was not nearly as good, and there was no celebration. The next year was even worse. The summer was hot and dry, and all of the crops were dying. The governor of the colony ordered the Pilgrims to fast and to pray, and eventually the rain came. To thank God for the rain, a day of thanksgiving was set aside. This day was not the rowdy feast and celebration of two years prior, instead it was a somber time of prayer.
Today, with our parades, football games and turkey dinners, our modern Thanksgiving more closely resembles the 1621 celebration than it does the 1623 holiday.
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