Thanksgiving

History

In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individualslured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World. After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, one month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay,where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.



Throughout that first brutal winter, only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers andcrew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English. Severaldays later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe, Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap frommaple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years andtragically remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans.

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor WilliamBradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving“although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time the festival lasted for three days.

Opinion

In my opinion thanksgiving is a time to spend with family and close friends at home.Good food, good conversations and lot of laughs to live with family, friends or acquaintances, thanksgiving is also a time of reflection it is a time to think about the past year and the things...