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So what exactly is Thanksgiving? We know that it’s in November just a couple weeks after Halloween and we know that it is a couple weeks before Christmas. We know that we eat turkey on that day and usually spend it with family and friends but what is it really about? Thanksgiving Day is an annual national holiday in the United States and Canada that celebrates the harvest and other blessings of the past year. The first documentation of the first Thanksgiving comes from the diary of Plymouth, Massachusetts governor William Bradford. His manuscript details his voyage to the New World, his efforts to settle in Plymouth, and many important events thereafter, including one particularly fateful dinner that took place in the fall of 1621. Bradford noted in his manuscript that the pilgrims of Plymouth had enjoyed an especially good harvest in the fall of 1621. In honor of their good fortune, they planned a meal to celebrate and give thanks for the abundance of food. The local Wampanoag natives had worked along with the pilgrims to hunt, fish, and gather much of that food and they'd even taught the pilgrims about many of those tactics in the first place. For that reason, they joined in to give thanks for it all. This peaceful dinner between the Wampanoag and pilgrims may seem a bit dubious to some, given the tensions between the two groups. But it's exactly that concept of two cultures coming together that made the dinner so memorable and important to our country's history. In that same spirit of joining together to give thanks, the tradition of “thanksgiving“ would eventually continue in the U.S. So that answers the question why do we celebrate thanksgiving, that took some thinking! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Subscribe to Thinking Captain on YouTube: We have a TON of interesting educational content like these videos about animals! Or maybe you just want to learn about Natural Disasters!? Or maybe you are just brand new and want to watch all the cool stuff?
