Was Christmas celebrated by the colonists?

Answer 1

The correct answer to this school question is Thanksgiving. The Indian tribe, the Wampanoag, always gave thanks to the Creator for the use of the land, animals to hunt, the hides from animals that they could wear as clothing/protection, and even for the changing seasons. They held ceremonies before and after performing work to ask for and then to celebrate successful harvests, hunting, and generally, for the Creator providing for their needs. For the Europeans, throughout ancient history, Europen people also "celebrated" before plantings and after harvests. Most of these "festivals" in ancient times were considered done by "heathens". (However, none of these celebrations had ever had a title of "Thanksgiving Day" celebrations.) ALSO, the Puritans also had traditions of giving thanks through prayer and feasts.

Through the year of 1619, the early Colonists and Indians faced much hardship, sickness and scarcity of food ---- in hunting trips and harvests. This was a very difficult time. But the next year from 1620 to 1621 during the planting-harvest season and hunting seasons, both Pilgrims and Indians had bountiful harvests and hunting.

So in 1621, when the Pilgrams and Wampanoag Indians came together to celebrate, it was a unique joining of Christian faith and gratitude, with the Wampanoag tribe's long traditions of "giving thanks", along with an underpinning of ancient people's celebrations before and after harvests. The Pilgrim - Wampanoag celebration blended four distinct traditions of customs (1) celebrating through ancient festivals (2) New England customs of showing gratitude after a successful harvest (based on ancient English harvest festivals), (3) the Puritan's solemn religious observance which included prayer and feasting, and (4) Wampanoag's celebration traditions before and after hunts, harvests, etc. This unique type of blended celebration had NEVER been done before, and for White Colonial Americans, it was THEIR FIRST "thanks" celebration on this soil now called The United States. It was THE FIRST time Whites and American Indians celebrated together. That is why the question is posed as "the first" group celebration the colonists made on US soil.

Official Holiday

In 1777, The Continental Congress proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day. As a National Holiday, almost all of our current traditions surrounding Thanksgiving come from that first celebration in 1621, including that it is a holiday--

• --to be spent with family, at home, as a family holiday / family celebration
• -- to give Thanks for our blessings, for our bounty.
• -- to offer thanks in prayer - - Most families still pray in thanks before cutting the turkey. In fact, in many families it is a great HONOR to be the person who leads the prayer.
• -- to "come together" among ALL people - marked by traditions of inviting non-family to Thanksgiving Dinner
• -- to feast - in some homes, to the point of almost 'gluttony'
• -- to recall our American Colonial roots, the Pilgrams who were the FIRST SETTLERS to celebrate as a group on US land
• -- to teach American-USA Colonial History, and thus carry on the tradition started by the Colonists
• -- to teach "American Indian" traditions of their "giving thanks" -- including some of the decorations we now associate with the holiday. Rather than limited to just one tribe, US History has incorporated ALL American Indians into the historical story of this tradition.

Days of Celebrations versus "National Holidays:

There are numerous "days" people might have celebrated, even long before ones were made into National Holidays. To be declared a National Holiday, The Congress must pass a law. So, first celebrations -- before being official-- were likely:

• persons' birthdays celebrated within families
• perhaps New Year's
• The Fourth of July - The Declaration of Independence 1776

What about Religous Holidays?

"The Church", primarily the Protestant Church, did not celebrate Easter and Christmas as specific group holidays. People celebrated mostly in secret, though after The Declaration of Independence, people began to enjoy more freedoms-- which began to spill over into church society too.

Answer 2

The Christmas holiday we celebrate today was begun in the fourth century during the time of Constantine when he united the Roman Empire. Since the holiday predates the arrival of colonists in the New World by about 400 years, and given that the colonists were predominantly Christian, it's probably a pretty safe bet that they did indeed celebrate Christmas! The Pilgrims did not believe in celebrating Christmas, because they were separatists, they believed the celebration of Christmas was a pagan festival associated with the Roman Catholic church. There was even a law passed AGAINST Christmas in 1652 I think it was, in Massachussets. So the celebration of Christmas started later in the US. It did not become a popular US holiday until the 19th century.

Answer 3

The Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indian tribe first celebrated what we know today as "Thanksgiving Day".

Answer 4

thanksgiving