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The First American ThanksgivingPublished: Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:04:00 -0500 On November 23, most of us celebrated Thanksgiving with family and/or friends. What most of us never consider is that the date on which we celebrate Thanksgiving was determined by a Congressional declaration in 1941. It was determined that the fourth Thursday of November should be celebrated as Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Prior to this, Abraham Lincoln had instituted an annual Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday of November, but Franklin D. Roosevelt had changed the dates because Lincoln’s date was too close to Christmas, as far as businesses were concerned. Both of these dates reflected the day of thanksgiving described by the Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts, Edward Winslow and William Bradford; a day in 1621 thanking God for His care and celebrating through feasting. According to a letter by Edward Winslow, "Our corn [i.e. wheat] did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown. They came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom. 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." However, the thanksgiving offered by the Pilgrims was not our country’s first celebration of Thanksgiving. There were, in fact, two earlier thanksgiving celebrations by colonists. Perhaps the first Thanksgiving Day in America was held by the Spanish. In May of 1541, on Ascension Thursday, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s records show that he held a Thanksgiving service in Palo Duro Canyon in West Texas. The Spanish had apparently discovered a new supply of food, and, in light of the Holy Day, decided to make it a day of thanksgiving. Some people hold this event to be the first Christian Thanksgiving service in North America. Like the Pilgrims’ day of thanksgiving, this thanksgiving included the Native Americans--in this case, the friendly Teya Indians.The first English colonial Thanksgiving Day, on the other hand, was held at what is now Berkeley Plantation in Charles City, Virginia. On December 4, 1619, survivors of “the starving time” in Jamestown, Captain John Woodlief and his crew, docked their ship, the Margaret, in the James River and climbed onto a grassy knoll on the shore to offer thanks to God. Since then, a brick gazebo was built on the spot and these words inscribed in commemoration: "Wee ordaine that the day of our ships' (sic) arrival at the place assigned for plantacone (sic) in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God." Like the Spanish celebration, this day of thanksgiving was focused very little on food, and far more on God and thanking Him for His provision. Some have claimed that to best reflect a true day of thanksgiving, we should celebrate Thanksgiving Day on December 4, for two reasons. The earlier Spanish Thanksgiving is not viewed as precedent setting because the United States developed mainly by English-speaking colonists rather than Spanish ones. On the other hand, the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving Day is discounted because it more closely resembles harvest festivals of that era, rather than solemn days of prayer and thanks. Regardless of what day we prefer to look to as foundational, we can thank God every day (not just these three) for His wonderful blessings on us and on our country, and we can enjoy the food, health, and freedom that He has given to us.
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