Happy Thanksgiving!

This feast day has evolved since the days of the Puritans.

Cape Cod has this to say about Thanksgiving:

James W. Baker, senior historian at Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Mass., has some thoughts on why that is with Thanksgiving. "It is an invented tradition," he said. "It doesn't originate in any one event.

It is based on the New England Puritan Thanksgiving, which is a religious Thanksgiving, and the traditional harvest celebrations of England and New England and maybe other ideas like commemorating the Pilgrims. All of these have been gathered together and transformed into something different from the original parts."

The Pilgrims were on Cape Cod long enough to celebrate the first European birth in the place they called New England, discover the utility of corn as a regional staple, and sign the Mayflower Compact (above), a document later touted by none other than John Quincy Adams as "the earliest example of civil government established by the act of the people to be governed"...

Globe.
The first ThanksgivingIn 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag tribe members shared a three-day autumn harvest feast. We know it as the first Thanksgiving. But according to the Smithsonian Museum, Thanksgiving services began at least 20 years earlier with ceremonies in the Popham Colony in Maine and in Jamestown, where colonists gave thanks for their safe arrival.

And, historically speaking, the Pilgrims would have never considered their feast 'Thanksgiving," which was a religious holiday, according to historians at Plimoth Plantation, a museum dedicated to the history of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag. That 1621 harvest celebration was anything but religious with feasting, singing, games, dancing and even drinking liquor, according to Smithsonian records... "

See how it evolved in a few years? Can you imagine the trip on those tiny wooden ships down in the hole? I don't think I could do it but Heinrich Winkle must have. He Settles in Virginia in the early 1700's. They must have had the trip down pat by then!

I woke up at 4 when I thought I heard the garbage truck go by. Must have been him so he can get home early on Thanksgiving. If I set it out at night I end up picking it again. Between Sable and the critters I have picked up some several times. They love to pry the lids off, more fun for them.

LuAnn wasn't far behind getting ready for our feast. Slicing, baking, cooking, a labor of love. Later we will watch the parades on TV and maybe some of the football game but our growing family has made it come first.

That's our tradition, what's yours?