Thanksgiving Evolved From Fasting and Prayer to Feasting and Mourning

Thanksgiving observances predate the feast of the year 1621 shared by the Wampanoag Indians and the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. Several myths have developed around the holiday feast that we call Thanksgiving, including what was on the original menu.

European thanksgiving celebrations originally entailed a period of fasting, quiet reflection and prayer. They were separate from harvest celebrations that included feasting and rejoicing. Native Americans also have traditions of thanksgiving celebrations.

The 101 Pilgrims, including some children, who left England in 1620 for the east coast of the new Promised Land, as they called it, faced a difficult journey of 66 days on rough seas. They arrived in November, just in time for a harsh winter. They were weakened by their seagoing diet of hardtack biscuits, dried meat and beer. The copious salt in their diet enfeebled them, as did the seasickness many experienced in the stormy Atlantic Ocean crossing.

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