What caused Thanksgiving?

Answer 1

The Thanksgiving Holiday in the U.S. stemmed from the Pilgrims survival of their first harvest in America. The Pilgrims celebrated their success with the Indians in 1621. Officially, Thanksgiving became a celebrated holiday since Abraham Lincoln made it official in 1863.

Answer 2

The events that led to Thanksgiving were:

1. After arriving at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620, the Mayflower Pilgrims experienced a disastrous first winter. The journey across the Atlantic had taken seven weeks and had weakened the determined travelers. During that arduous winter many died of pneumonia. They lacked housing and the strength and ability to build fast enough to accommodate the group. Many remained housed on the Mayflower. By spring their number of 102 persons had dwindled to 56.

The Pilgrims were saved by an Indian, an English-speaking member of the Wampanoag Nation named Squanto. Squanto, who had learned English from earlier English-speaking explorers, taught these Pilgrims how to grow vegetables, how to build houses, how to recognize poisonous plants, how to use fertilizer, and how to tap maple trees. Through this generous native and his tribe, the immigrants learned valuable skills for living in a place that was severe and utterly foreign to them. The Wampanoags shared their food and gave the Pilgrims clothing while they taught them how to acquire their own.

By autumn of the next year, 1621, the Pilgrims harvested a bounty of crops for which they were truly thankful. One of the Pilgrims, Edwin Winslow, wrote a letter back home to England, and that letter gives us clear picture of the events that led to what we now treasure as the first Thanksgiving:

Our corn did prove well, and, God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown. They came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom.

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among 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, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

Historians have suggested that this three-day event probably included September 29, which is the traditional English celebration of Michaelmas, a Christian feast held to honor the archangel, Michael. It is thought that the Pilgrims in gratitude to Squanto and the Wampanoag leader Massasoit for their help invited them to bring their families to help them celebrate their harvest, and the families turned out to include around ninety individuals

The Plimoth Plantation has suggested that the feast is likely to have included lobster, goose, boiled turkey, pudding of Indian corn meal with dried whortleberries, cod, duck, stewed pumpkin, venison brought by the Indians, savory pudding of hominy, fruit and Holland cheese.

Answer 3

A successful harvest was the reason for the pilgrims gathering together for what we call the First Thanksgiving.

Answer 4

Thanksgiving was caused because men called "pilgrims" wanted freedom from King Henry VIII who was making the people believe in a certain religion and only that religion.