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A historian explains how the Pilgrims took over Thanksgiving – and who has been erased
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Nine in 10 Americans gather around a table to share food on Thanksgiving. At this polarizing moment, anything that promises to bring Americans together warrants our attention.
But as a historian of religion, I feel obliged to recount how popular interpretations of Thanksgiving also have pulled us apart.
Communal rituals of giving thanks have a longer history in North America, and it was only around the turn of the 20th century that most people in the U.S. came to associate Thanksgiving with Plymouth “Pilgrims” and generic “Indians” sharing a historic meal.
When is Thanksgiving? Why it falls on the 4th Thursday of November.
Every year, on the last Thursday of November, Americans gather for a huge feast to give thanks.
Thanksgiving is known as the day to eat turkey, be merry and give thanks. It's also the official start of the holiday season.
Unlike other holidays, like Christmas or Valentine's Day, the date Thanksgiving falls on changes each year, but the holiday will always fall on the last Thursday of November. But why isn't there a set date for Thanksgiving?
Here's what to know about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it when we do.
President George Washington declared Thursday, Nov. 26, 1789, a "Day of Public Thanksgiving" after he was asked by the first Federal Congress, according to the National Archives. It was the first time Thanksgiving was celebrated under the country's new Constitution.
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‘Round the Square: The first harvest celebration
FOOD: What’s for dinner on Thanksgiving? Do you have a traditional turkey dinner?
According to Smithsonian Magazine, turkey wasn’t the centerpiece of the first Thanksgiving.
“Two primary sources — the only surviving documents that reference the meal — confirm that these dietary staples were part of the harvest celebration shared by the Pilgrims and Wampanoag at Plymouth Colony in 1621. Edward Winslow, an English leader who attended, wrote home to a friend:
“’Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some 90 men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others.’
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