Guide · 5 min read
History of Thanksgiving: From the 1621 Harvest to Today
The short answer: In the autumn of 1621, the English colonists at Plymouth held a harvest celebration, and about 90 Wampanoag men joined them for three days. Nobody called it Thanksgiving at the time. The holiday Americans keep today goes back to Abraham Lincoln's proclamation of 1863, and since a 1941 law it has fallen on the fourth Thursday of November.
What happened at Plymouth in 1621?
It was a harvest celebration that lasted several days, shared by the colonists and their Wampanoag neighbors. The colonists had crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower in 1620, and about half of them died during the first winter. In the spring, a Patuxet man named Tisquantum, better known as Squanto, showed the survivors how to plant corn, using fish to feed the soil, and acted as their interpreter. That first harvest was good enough to celebrate.
Almost everything we know about the celebration comes from a few lines in one letter, written by the colonist Edward Winslow in December 1621 and printed in London the next year. Winslow says the governor sent four men out to hunt birds so the colony could "rejoice together" after gathering the harvest. Then, he writes, "many of the Indians" arrived, "and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer."
So the guests were Wampanoag men led by Massasoit, whose own name was Ousamequin. The colonists hosted them for three days, and the Wampanoag hunters brought five deer to the feast.
Did they eat turkey, and did they call it Thanksgiving?
Probably some wild birds, and no. Winslow mentions wildfowl but never names turkey, although the colony's governor, William Bradford, later wrote that wild turkeys were plentiful that autumn. There is no mention of pies, potatoes or cranberry sauce.
Winslow's letter does not call the event a thanksgiving either. To the colonists, a day of thanksgiving was a religious observance spent mostly in prayer. The 1621 gathering was closer to the harvest festivals they knew from England, with food, games and a show of their guns. The label "the first Thanksgiving" was attached to it in the 1800s.
How did Thanksgiving become a national holiday?
Through a long letter-writing campaign by a magazine editor, and a proclamation by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. George Washington proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving for November 26, 1789. A few later presidents issued occasional proclamations, but there was no yearly national holiday, and each state set its own date, if it held one at all.
Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of Godey's Lady's Book and the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," spent years urging governors and presidents to make Thanksgiving one national holiday on the same day everywhere. On September 28, 1863, she wrote to President Lincoln. In 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. The proclamation was issued on October 3, 1863, and it was largely written by Secretary of State William Seward. Every president since has issued a Thanksgiving proclamation.
Why is Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November?
Because of a fight over Christmas shopping in 1939. In most years the last Thursday of November is also the fourth, but in 1939 the month had five Thursdays. With the country still recovering from the Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving one week earlier, to November 23, to give stores a longer Christmas shopping season.
The change was unpopular. Critics nicknamed the new date "Franksgiving," and for three years, from 1939 to 1941, states disagreed, some keeping the old date and some following the president. In 1941 Congress settled it: the House voted for the last Thursday, the Senate changed that to the fourth Thursday, and Roosevelt signed the resolution on December 26, 1941. Since 1942, Thanksgiving has fallen on the fourth Thursday of November, so it can land anywhere from November 22 to November 28. In 2026 it falls on November 26.
Where does the presidential turkey pardon come from?
From a photo opportunity that became a ceremony. Presidents have been sent turkeys for the holidays since at least the 1870s, and most of those birds were eaten. John F. Kennedy spared one in 1963, and the pardon became part of the White House ceremony during Ronald Reagan's presidency. The tradition became official in 1989, when George H. W. Bush gave the first formal pardon in the Rose Garden. Since then, every president has pardoned a turkey before the holiday.
How is Thanksgiving in Canada different?
It comes earlier and has its own history, separate from the Plymouth story. Canada celebrates Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October, a date fixed by proclamation in 1957. Canada held its first annual national Thanksgiving in 1879, and the holiday gives thanks for the harvest. From 1921 to 1930 it was held on the same day as Armistice Day in November; the two were separated in 1931.
How do Wampanoag people see the holiday?
For many Native people, it is a day of mourning rather than celebration. The peace between Massasoit and the colonists did not last: in 1675 it ended in King Philip's War, led by Massasoit's son Metacom, which devastated the Native nations of southern New England. Since 1970, Native people and their supporters have gathered at Plymouth on Thanksgiving Day for a National Day of Mourning. Any honest history of the holiday includes both stories.
Thanksgiving timeline
- 1620 — The Mayflower brings the colonists to Plymouth.
- 1621 — The harvest celebration with Massasoit and about 90 Wampanoag men, lasting three days.
- 1789 — George Washington proclaims a national day of thanksgiving for November 26.
- 1863 — Sarah Josepha Hale writes to Lincoln; Lincoln proclaims Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November.
- 1939 — Roosevelt moves the holiday a week earlier ("Franksgiving").
- 1941 — Congress fixes Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November, starting in 1942.
- 1957 — Canada fixes its Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October.
- 1970 — The first National Day of Mourning at Plymouth.
- 1989 — The first official presidential turkey pardon.
Sources
- Pilgrim Hall Museum — The “First Thanksgiving”
- Plimoth Patuxet Museums — Eye-witness account of the 1621 harvest celebration (Edward Winslow)
- Library of Congress — Sarah J. Hale to Abraham Lincoln, September 28, 1863
- National Park Service — Lincoln and Thanksgiving
- National Archives — Congress Establishes Thanksgiving
- The American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) — The evolution of the Thanksgiving proclamation
- White House Historical Association — History of White House Thanksgiving traditions
- The Canadian Encyclopedia — Thanksgiving in Canada
Written and checked by the TakaQuiz team (Fiveupclub Inc). Published . Found a mistake? Email hello@takaquiz.com.
