Dia De Accion De Gracias

History Of American Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day as we know it today in America actually had its beginning in England before the 1600's.

Beginning in 1517 (the year Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Germany) the Protestant Reformation began. The word Protestant, refers to those individuals who protested the manner in which the RomanCatholic Church operated, and protested the doctrines it taught. This Protestant Reformation continued for many years, and in a sense it still continues today, but in many different forms and against many different enemies. The original Protestant Reformation, which actually began in 1517, spread rapidly throughout the known world. It effected governments and religious organizations everywhere itwent. In 1534, the English King Henry the VIII issued the Act of Supremacy, which made the king the head of the national church in England, which in turn greatly weakened the Roman Catholic hold over England. Then in 1558, under Queen Elizabeth I, (Henry the VIIIth's daughter by Anne Boleyn [1507-1536]) the Church of England became independent.

The Church of England is known as the AnglicanChurch, and includes many different church groups today to include the Church of Wales, the Church of Ireland, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Episcopal Church of Scotland, and the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States.

At the time our story begins, the Anglican Church of England had become almost as legalistic, apostate and degenerate as the Roman Catholic Church before it. But alsoin England there was a group of Protestants who believed that the Bible was the final authority in all manners of life, and that the organized church was not the final authority. These Bible believing Protestants were known as Puritans. They were called Puritans because they desired to purify the Church of England. But even before 1600, some of the Puritans decided that they could not reform theChurch of England from within, so they separated from the Church of England and set up congregrations of their own. These people were known as Separatists, because they separated themselves from the apostasy and false doctrine of the organized church. One group of Separatists, under the leadership of William Brewster, held Bible meetings in the village of Scooby. English officials persecuted them,and in 1608 Brewster and his group fled from England and settled in Leiden, Holland.

The Separatists (Puritans) preferred farming over city life, because they were afraid their children would become more Dutch than English. And they also feared that a war would break out between Holland and Spain. They longed to return to their English way of life, yet they wanted to keep their own type ofworship, which was based upon the Bible.

Therefore, the new land of America appealed to them, and some English merchants even agreed to finance a trip to America. In July, 1620, Brewster led a group of Separatists (Puritans) back to England. Then in September, 1620, they set sail for America in the Mayflower. The Mayflower sailed alone from Plymouth, England, with 102 passengers, including womenand children. It was a very rough journey of 65 days (a little over two months). They had expected to land somewhere within the limits of the original grant of the Virginia Company, but error in navigation led them to the New England region. Adverse winds and shoals off Cape Cod forced the Mayflower to stay north. They dropped anchor in what is now Provincetown Harbor, Massachusetts, inside the tipof Cape Cod on November 21, 1620. (November 11, according to the calendar then in use).

The Puritan leaders were uncertain of their legal position because they were in an area without authority. They also knew they would need discipline among themselves. To solve these problems, the 41 men aboard met and signed the Mayflower Compact, the first agreement for self-government in America. They...