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From the Chaplain's Desk 11/25/09:
Happy Thanksgiving 2009, from Your Association’s Chaplain
I enjoy looking up information about the history of special events. I hope you’ll find this article, of the First Thanksgiving, to be interesting and informative.
The pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, from England on the Mayflower in 1620. It was those who survived that first year, from this ship only, that celebrated the bountiful feast, from the fall of 1621. It included a bounty of food harvested from that first year, and fowl, which was noted to have included Wild Turkey. During the week long festivities being celebrated by the pilgrims, Indians with their Chief (who the pilgrims called their greatest king), Massasoit arrived with 90 men. They were greeted, and included to celebrate in the pilgrims festivities. Massasoit then sent some of his men out on a hunt. They harvested 5 deer, and gave them as their contribution to the Governor and the Captain of the plantation. Together they celebrated with festivities and eating, which lasted 3 days, from within that week (as was written from the account by Edward Winslow).
These are the Pilgrims who attended that first feast:
4 MARRIED WOMEN: Eleanor Billington,
Mary Brewster, Elizabeth Hopkins, Susanna White Winslow.
5 ADOLESCENT GIRLS: Mary Chilton (14),
Constance Hopkins (13 or 14), Priscilla Mullins (19), Elizabeth Tilley
(14 or15) and Dorothy, the Carver's unnamed maidservant, perhaps 18 or
19.
9 ADOLESCENT BOYS: Francis & John
Billington, John Cooke, John Crackston, Samuel Fuller (2d), Giles Hopkins,
William Latham, Joseph Rogers, Henry Samson.
13 YOUNG CHILDREN: Bartholomew, Mary
& Remember Allerton, Love & Wrestling Brewster, Humility Cooper,
Samuel Eaton, Damaris & Oceanus Hopkins, Desire Minter, Richard More,
Resolved & Peregrine White.
22 MEN: John Alden, Isaac Allerton,
John Billington, William Bradford, William Brewster, Peter Brown, Francis
Cooke, Edward Doty, Francis Eaton, [first name unknown] Ely, Samuel Fuller,
Richard Gardiner, John Goodman, Stephen Hopkins, John Howland, Edward Lester,
George Soule, Myles Standish, William Trevor, Richard Warren, Edward Winslow,
Gilbert Winslow.
I hope you found this interesting, and informative regarding that first Thanksgiving, celebrated by the first pilgrims in a new and foreign land. It wasn’t only the thankfulness of the bountiful harvest that made this event important. It wasn’t just the celebrating with those from within the plantation, but the inclusion of the new found friends, known to them as Indians, that made this event so special.
Today, we celebrate with Turkey, just as was done on that first Thanksgiving. Our celebrating is usually with family and friends, but if you have opportunity, you might consider inviting a stranger to join you, as did the pilgrims. It might be a college student, who can’t make it home, or is a foreign exchange student, who isn’t acquainted with our custom. It might be a visitor at your church, or someone new to your community.
No matter how you celebrate it, from me to you…Happy Thanksgiving.
May God continue to bless us with His
Grace, and continue to give us a bountiful food supply which we can share
with those who are in need.
Roy Meissner
Your Hector
Association’s Chaplain
