Thanksgiving: Pagan Roots
Feast Day Has Roots in European and Native American Paganism
Pilgrims and Wampanoagans celebrated the first Thanksgiving. The tribe had its own feast day. Future Pagan immigrants brought their harvest festivals to America.
It is taught that the Pilgrims established Thanksgiving, to share their abundant harvest with local Wampanoag Tribe, “People of the Dawn.” They were gatherers, hunters, farmers and fishermen. The colonists arrived in December and endured hard times, barely surviving. Colonists recorded Indians were robbed and their fields were plundered, most likely because of this.
The Pilgrims were English Separatists who broke away from the Church of England because they felt that it had not completed the Reformation’s work. One of the groups from Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England went to Amsterdam and lived there for about 12 years before sailing to America.
In the New Country, the Pilgrims lived in hovels made from sticks and logs plastered together with straw, clay, sand and water. The wheat they brought to plant didn’t fare well in the rocky soil. Many died and were buried at night so the Indians wouldn’t know their numbers.
Wampanoagan Samoset came to help the colonists, but his command of the English language was limited, so he later brought Squanto, who knew English well, to teach the Pilgrims survival skills. He taught the immigrants how to grow beans, corn, squash and other crops, using fish as a fertilizer. Squanto showed them which plants were poisonous and those used for healing. He taught the people how to obtain sap from maple trees, dig for clams and other skills.
The Pilgrims celebrated the first New World harvest. Leader Captain Miles Standish invited Chief Massasoit and 90 braves, including Squanto and Samoset, to join them in 1621.
Thanksgiving was not the first feast celebrating harvest. Pagans had festivals giving thanks for bounty.
Native American and Pagan European Roots
The Wampanoag had their own harvest celebration in which they gave thanks for abundant crops to Kiehtan, the Creator. They believed corn, the most valued crop, was a gift from him. The tribe expressed gratitude to the spirits of the game for the animals they killed for food.
By the time Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, other Europeans had settled in America and brought their traditions, some Pagan, with them.
Harvest festivals were celebrated by Europeans. Romans celebrated Cerelia by giving thanks to Ceres, Goddess of Harvest. Celtic and Anglo/Saxon Pagans celebrated Lughnasadh and Mabon, the first and second harvests. The Greeks gave honor to Demeter during the Thesmophoria. The New Englanders’ Pagan ancestors celebrated Harvest Home, the first reaping of crops, in August. There was a silent time for gratitude and reflection, followed by singing and dancing after which a joyous feast was held.
First New World Thanksgiving Feast
There are only two brief contemporary accounts written by Edward Winslow and William Bradford of the menu. According to these, celebrants ate venison, fowl, corn, fish and wheat breads. It is likely that rabbit, eggs, shellfish, barley, beans, squash, carrots, onions, peas, cabbage, cheese, pumpkin and Indian puddings, nuts and cornbread were on the table because these foods were available in 1621.
There were no pies because the colonists didn’t have ovens. Potatoes weren’t served.
It’s been written that Quadequina, Massasoit’s brother, treated the celebrants to popcorn. This has been refuted because Indian corn doesn’t pop well. It’s possible that popcorn, although poorly made, was served.
Related articles:
Mabon, Fall Equinox-Second Harvest
Source:
The Food Book, James Trager, (Grossman Publishing, 1970)
