Thanksgiving might seem like just a holiday that you gather with family and say what you’re thankful for, but it is so much more. Many people have heard of the origin story of Thanksgiving, but no one truly has known the whole story. The Native Americans were the first to inhabit the East Coast of the United States. The first Thanksgiving took place in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. The English Protestants called Puritans wanted to break away from the Church of England and moved to the Plymouth Colony. The Puritans sailed in a boat called the Mayflower. The Mayflower carried 101 men, women, and children traveling over 66 days and was supposed to land where New York City is now located, but because of high winds they were forced to cut their trip short and settle in what is now Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Preparing for a cold winter the Puritans gathered any supplies they could. 

One autumn day, four settlers went out to hunt food for a harvest celebration. Hearing gunshots, the Wampanoag alerted their leader, Massasoit, who suspected the English might be preparing for war. Massasoit, along with 90 of his men, visited the English settlement to investigate. It soon became clear that the English were simply hunting for the upcoming feast. In response, Massasoit sent some of his men to hunt deer for the occasion. Over the next three days, English settlers and Wampanoag men, women, and children shared a meal together. The feast included deer, corn, shellfish, and roasted meat—quite different from today’s traditional Thanksgiving menu. The celebration also featured ball games, singing, and dancing. While prayers and expressions of gratitude were likely part of the 1621 harvest gathering, the first officially recorded religious Thanksgiving in Plymouth occurred two years later, in 1623, when the colonists gave thanks to God for rainfall following a two-month drought.