What is the origin of the Thanksgiving holiday? What biblical lessons should we learn from it?
The holiday of Thanksgiving, celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November, is an annual occasion for family togetherness, food, relaxation and (hopefully) thanksgiving toward God for His blessings. Other nations observe similar holidays on other days of the year. The original Thanksgiving took place in 1621 as the Pilgrims, along with a number of the local Native American Indians who brought deer and other food, held a three-day harvest celebration. Following is an excerpt of that first Thanksgiving, written by Edward Winslow in Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth: “At which time, amongst 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 on our governor, and upon the captain and other. And although it be not
