Thanksgiving lives on through tradition

Each year on the fourth Thursday in November, people all over America take a day off to spend time with family, watch football, and eat the traditional Thanksgiving feast.

Thanksgiving this year is Thursday, Nov. 26.

According to the National Turkey Federation, nearly 88 percent of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving.

However, back in 1621, when the first Thanksgiving took place, the meal consisted of more than turkey. The Pilgrims also ate fish, duck, and deer.

So how did Thanksgiving come to its current glory?

In September 1620, The Mayflower, a ship carrying 102 religious separatists seeking a home where they could freely practice their religion, left Plymouth, England.

Sixty-six days later, the ship anchored at Cape Cod. A month later, it crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the first colonists, the Pilgrims, began to establish the new Plymouth in Massachusetts.

Many colonists stayed on the ship during the first winter and only about half of The Mayflower’s passengers survived.

In March 1621, the remaining Pilgrims established themselves on land.

That month they were visited by an Abenaki Indian who spoke English.

A few days later, the man returned with his friend, Squanto, a member of the Patuxet tribe, who was well-spoken in English from his time spent as the slave of an English sea captain.

The Puritans were quick to befriend the man and Squanto, soon becoming allies with many other American Indians.

Thanks to Squanto, the settlers were able to create an alliance with the Wampanoag tribe, a bond that would last for years to come.

Squanto also helped the colonists to adjust to American life, teaching them how to cultivate corn, catch fish in rivers, get sap from maple trees, and which plants to avoid.

In November 1621, Gov. William Bradford, of the Plymouth settlement, organized a feast in celebration of the Pilgrims’ first successful harvest and to give thanks to God for the Pilgrims’ first year of survival in the New World.

Bradford also invited the colony’s American Indian allies to celebrate with them.

This was said to be the first Thanksgiving, although the Pilgrims did not use the term.

Edward Winslow was a Pilgrim who partook in the first Thanksgiving.

According to Winslow’s account in “Mourt’s Relation,” he said that Bradford sent four men on a duck and turkey hunting mission for the event, and that when the Wampanoag tribe arrived with 90 men, the Indians went out and killed five deer to add to the meal.

The meal did not feature pie, cakes, or other desserts like Thanksgiving feasts do nowadays. Mashed potatoes also were not served.

In addition to the fowl and venison, however, the Pilgrims had plenty of fish with cod and bass being the most abundant.

The Pilgrims’ celebration was a three-day festival of hunting, eating, and entertainment.

Two years later, the Pilgrims celebrated the second Thanksgiving to mark the end of a drought and religious fast called upon by Bradford.

Other New England settlements began to fast and celebrate Thanksgiving as well.

The Continental Congress designated one to two days of Thanksgiving a year during the American Revolution.

In 1789, George Washington called for the celebration of Thanksgiving on Nov. 26 that year — to give thanks for their newfound freedom from England and to celebrate the ratification of the Constitution.

The holiday did not become an annual tradition, however, until the 19th century when author Sarah Josepha Hale was inspired by a Pilgrim’s diary and decided to rally for the establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

Hale’s 36-year campaign for Thanksgiving was attained in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday that would take place on the final Thursday of November each year.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to make Thanksgiving a week earlier so that Great Depression Era businesses had more time in the Christmas season to make money.

This was met with much disapproval, so in 1941, Roosevelt signed a bill establishing Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November.

Since then, Thanksgiving has lost much of its religious undertone, but lives on through tradition.

Americans gather with family to share meals consisting of turkey (sometimes ham), stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries, pumpkin pie, and more.

Parades, like New York City’s Thanksgiving Day parade, take place all over the country.

Since President George H.W. Bush spared the life of a turkey on Nov. 17, 1989, the tradition of the presidential turkey pardon each Thanksgiving has been continuous.

A number of United States governors also take part in the pardoning tradition.

Football games have been a Thanksgiving day tradition since 1869, when in Philadelphia hosted a game between Yale and Princeton. Yale was victorious.

Many people do different things on the holiday.

Senior Paige Roberts’ family holds a “turkey bowl,” in which they play a big football game in celebration of the games on Thanksgiving.

Shelby Coates, senior said, “My family keeps the wishbone from the turkey and, after it’s dry, my sister and I break it to see who gets the wish.”

Freshman Chloe Vollmar’s family wears pajamas on Thanksgiving.

Wiliam Spielmaker, junior, also has his own family customs.

“I always go see a movie on Thanksgiving,” Spielmaker said. “It’s a tradition. I also watch all the Thanksgiving ‘Friends’ episodes.”

Sophomore Metéo Booth’s family likes to play board games on Thanksgiving.

There are people who do not celebrate the holiday, however, like senior Zyaire Bohannan.

“My family is primarily Native American,” Bohannan said. “The history (of the holiday) is kind of disturbing to us so we don’t bother with Thanksgiving.”

All in all, Thanksgiving does, and will continue to, serve as a means of bringing families together for years to come.