Did You Know?

Thanksgiving was Celebrated by Native Americans Before the Pilgrims Ever Landed and Today There Exists an Un-Thanksgiving Day

We all celebrate Thanksgiving in North America with turkey, gravy and all the trimmings.  This Thanksgiving tradition dates back to the "first" official celebration at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621.  However, these European settlers did not necessarily start the tradition.

                  The Wampanoag tribe helped the Pilgrims survive their first years at Plymouth

After battling starvation and disease, the pilgrims who landed at Plymouth were doomed.  However, the local natives, the Wampanoag tribe, helped them learn how to grow corn and live off of the land by fishing and harvesting the local bounty.  After surviving the year, they decided to follow the custom of harvest celebrations in Europe combined with a fall harvest celebration that the Native Americans celebrated as well.  The Wampanoag tribe joined the Pilgrim's in their harvest celebration which they called Thanksgiving.  The celebration included turkey because they were birds that were plentiful in the northeastern part of America and they were easy to hunt.  They also ate various types of seafood that they learned to harvest from the ocean.

            The turkey became the unfortunate staple of Thanksgiving Day dinners in America                    simply because they were readily available in the days during the first Thanksgiving                  celebrations.

The Thanksgiving fall feast was not a regular tradition however.  Until the settlers were well established, regular Thanksgiving celebrations did not occur until the middle of the 17th century. When the United States was first formed in the 18th century, states developed legislation declaring Thanksgiving an annual celebration, however, they celebrated it on different dates. Followed almost a century later a Presidential declaration for the Nation by Abraham Lincoln made the final Thursday in November the national holiday of Thanksgiving.  It was not until 1941 that legislation was put in place making Thanksgiving the 4th Thursday every November.

The first Thanksgiving celebration in Plymouth, Massachusetts

Thanksgiving began as a typical harvest festival and to give thanks for survival

Believe it or not, unknown to many, there exists an Un-Thanksgiving Day which is held on Alcatraz Island in California.  Some refer to it as The Indigenous Peoples Sunrise Ceremony.  This is held by Native Americans and other indigenous tribes of the western hemisphere to celebrate their survival of the European overtaking of their lands on this side of the world. Thousands attend each year and celebrations usually consist of song and dance.

Natives celebrate Un-Thanksgiving Day or The Indigenous Peoples Sunrise Ceremony on Alcatraz Island, California

The Un-Tanksgiving Day event is designed to commemorate the survival of Native American peoples following the settlement of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere, which led to enormous losses among Indians from disease, warfare and social disruption. Organizers want it to serve in contrast to the traditional American Thanksgiving story in which the Pilgrims amicably shared a meal with Native Americans. 

This video was from last year...