THE LEGEND OF THANKSGIVING DAY

The tradition of the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving
is steeped in myth and legend.
Few people realize that the Pilgrims did not
celebrate Thanksgiving the next year, or any year thereafter,
though some of their descendants later made a "Forefather's Day"
that usually occurred on December 21 or 22.
Several Presidents, including George Washington,
made one-time Thanksgiving holidays.
In 1827, Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale began
lobbying several Presidents for the instatement of
Thanksgiving as a national holiday,
but her lobbying was unsuccessful until 1863
when Abraham Lincoln finally made it a national holiday
with his 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation.



Today, our Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November.
This was set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939
(approved by Congress in 1941),
who changed it from Abraham Lincoln's designation
as the last Thursday in November (which could
occasionally end up being the fifth Thursday
and hence too close to Christmas for businesses).
But the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving
began at some unknown date between
September 21 and November 9,
most likely in very early October.
The date of Thanksgiving was probably set
by Lincoln to somewhat correlate with the
anchoring of the Mayflower at Cape Cod,
which occurred on November 21, 1620
(by our modern Gregorian calendar--it was November 11
to the Pilgrims who used the Julian calendar).



There are only two contemporary accounts of the 1621 Thanksgiving:
First is Edward Winslow's account,
which he wrote in a letter dated December 12, 1621.
The complete letter was first published in 1622,
and is chapter 6 of Mourt's Relation:
A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.