Thanksgiving

A collection of essays and poems, Thanksgiving: Its Origin, Celebration and Significance includes works like Thanksgiving in America and Grandma’s Thanksgiving Story in addition to a brief history of the holiday. The modern Thanksgiving holiday can be traced back to the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony around 1621. The Pilgrims had a large feast after a successful growing season thanks to the help of the Wampanoag Indians, including Squanto and Chief Massasoit. Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to catch eel and grow corn, and he also served as an interpreter between the colonists and other Wampanoags. Massasoit donated storage space and food to the young settlement. After the first successful harvest, the Pilgrims celebrated with some neighboring Native Americans for nearly three days. Today, this celebration is thought to be the first Thanksgiving, and after President Abraham Lincoln made the holiday an official, annual one in 1864, Americans follow the tradition every year.