4 Interesting Facts about the History of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a holiday that not only calls for celebration but also whole lots of retrospection. A look into the history of the holiday will give us a lot to think over and also reexamine our lives. Thanksgiving can teach us a lot of things. There is a saying that tells us, that one who does not learn from history is a fool. It is very true as history can teach us a lot of things. We can learn from the mistakes our ancestors, pick up and follow the good things about their lives and so much more. The history of thanksgiving too is bound to teach us a lot about hard work, hope, perseverance, the fighting spirit and living together. Most importantly it teaches us to give thanks for all our blessings.
1. Hope
The history of Thanksgiving started with the settlers who arrived in Cape Cod on the mayflower in 1620. They had traveled to a faraway land in hopes of living their lives away from the religious persecution that they had faced back home. It was a treacherous journey, one that involved an unknown destination and a lot of diseases and death. However they made it after 66 days on the sea. All they had left in them at this point was the hope of survival. And their unwavering hope paid off as the Indians who were already living there helped them by showing them how to cultivate the land and generally live off the land.
2. Hard work
The settlers put everything they had into the land. They worked really hard to till the land and have a harvest. After a year of hard work together with the Wampanoag Indians, the settlers had a big harvest. The then governor held a great feast to celebrate this and this became the first ever recorded Thanksgiving, although the people at that time may not have called it that. The harvest was in November and since then, Thanksgiving has always been celebrated this month.
