The Real First Thanksgiving
They didn't go to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving.
They didn't bloat themselves on cranberry sauce and stuffing, then scarf down the Alka-Seltzer.
They didn't settle in after dinner and watch a football game on TV or grab a snooze in the La-Z Boy.
They didn't plan their strategy for the big day-after-Thanksgiving onslaught at the malls.
They didn't huddle in small groups and drone on about football.
What they did was spend most of their day thanking God for just being alive.
The Pilgrims and their new found friends, the Indians, agreed to gather for a feast and celebrate life and praise God for bringing them safely through their first growing season and providing, what they thought then, to be a bountiful harvest.
When the Pilgrims arrived in America they were surprised to discover several Indians who spoke English and would serve as interpreters between the settlers and the Indians.
One of those Indians was a brave named Squanto, who was twice captured by the English and ultimately returned to his homeland, only to find all the members of his tribe were dead - the victims of the deadly fever that the Indians believed was introduced into their tribe by the invading English.
While serving as a slave in England, however, Squanto was converted to Christianity, and returned to his homeland with a profound belief in God.
Squanto's friendship with the Pilgrims proved invaluable.
The Pilgrims' new friend helped them negotiate treaties with other Indian tribes in the neighborhood who were not so friendly to the White man.
The Indians' experience with the new kids on the block had not been good.
The white man had invaded their villages, taken their braves as slaves, carried off their woman and their pelts, and killed them with their "fire sticks.
" Squanto helped the Pilgrims negotiate treaties that lasted almost 50 years with those hostile tribes.
At peace with their neighbors, the Pilgrims set about to establish their colony.
On April 5, 1621, they gathered on the shore to wave goodbye to the Mayflower, which sailed back to England.
They cut their ties with their native land for good.
They were in America to stay.
Squanto taught his new friends how to plant corn, and probably how to trap and hunt wild game like the Indians.
They had feared for their lives during the winter, but that first spring (with Squanto's help) they planted crops and prayed for God's blessing.
During the summer corn ripened in the fields and grapes grew warm in the sun.
They had enough crop that first summer to send boats up river to trade with the Massachusetts Indians for beaver pelts.
Governor William Bradford probably designated a day in October to celebrate that first harvest.
Abraham Lincoln first made Thanksgiving an official holiday on the fourth Thursday of November in 1863.
The menu for that first meal included wild turkey, duck and geese, venison, lobster, eel pie, corn bread herbs, wild plums, berries and red and white wine.
More than 70 braves showed up to celebrate with the Pilgrims.
Some of them went into the woods and returned with four deer to prepare for the meal.
The food was so bountiful from that first harvest, that the Indians stayed with the Pilgrims for three days.
They didn't bloat themselves on cranberry sauce and stuffing, then scarf down the Alka-Seltzer.
They didn't settle in after dinner and watch a football game on TV or grab a snooze in the La-Z Boy.
They didn't plan their strategy for the big day-after-Thanksgiving onslaught at the malls.
They didn't huddle in small groups and drone on about football.
What they did was spend most of their day thanking God for just being alive.
The Pilgrims and their new found friends, the Indians, agreed to gather for a feast and celebrate life and praise God for bringing them safely through their first growing season and providing, what they thought then, to be a bountiful harvest.
When the Pilgrims arrived in America they were surprised to discover several Indians who spoke English and would serve as interpreters between the settlers and the Indians.
One of those Indians was a brave named Squanto, who was twice captured by the English and ultimately returned to his homeland, only to find all the members of his tribe were dead - the victims of the deadly fever that the Indians believed was introduced into their tribe by the invading English.
While serving as a slave in England, however, Squanto was converted to Christianity, and returned to his homeland with a profound belief in God.
Squanto's friendship with the Pilgrims proved invaluable.
The Pilgrims' new friend helped them negotiate treaties with other Indian tribes in the neighborhood who were not so friendly to the White man.
The Indians' experience with the new kids on the block had not been good.
The white man had invaded their villages, taken their braves as slaves, carried off their woman and their pelts, and killed them with their "fire sticks.
" Squanto helped the Pilgrims negotiate treaties that lasted almost 50 years with those hostile tribes.
At peace with their neighbors, the Pilgrims set about to establish their colony.
On April 5, 1621, they gathered on the shore to wave goodbye to the Mayflower, which sailed back to England.
They cut their ties with their native land for good.
They were in America to stay.
Squanto taught his new friends how to plant corn, and probably how to trap and hunt wild game like the Indians.
They had feared for their lives during the winter, but that first spring (with Squanto's help) they planted crops and prayed for God's blessing.
During the summer corn ripened in the fields and grapes grew warm in the sun.
They had enough crop that first summer to send boats up river to trade with the Massachusetts Indians for beaver pelts.
Governor William Bradford probably designated a day in October to celebrate that first harvest.
Abraham Lincoln first made Thanksgiving an official holiday on the fourth Thursday of November in 1863.
The menu for that first meal included wild turkey, duck and geese, venison, lobster, eel pie, corn bread herbs, wild plums, berries and red and white wine.
More than 70 braves showed up to celebrate with the Pilgrims.
Some of them went into the woods and returned with four deer to prepare for the meal.
The food was so bountiful from that first harvest, that the Indians stayed with the Pilgrims for three days.
Source...