Giving thanks: The origins of Thanksgiving Day

In the autumn of 1621, the surviving Pilgrims (whose numbers had been diminished by about half due to disease and hardship) celebrated their successful harvest by declaring a time of feasting and thanksgiving. As Edward Winslow recorded, "at which times amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some 90 men, who for three days we entertained and feasted."

Today we consider that event our "First Thanksgiving," but the holiday that we celebrate today is actually a combination of two different and long-standing holidays that were celebrated by various cultures around the world: the harvest-home festival or feast that was celebrated when the main crops were harvested; and a formal day of thanksgiving, which could be declared for any occasion, such as a great victory in battle or as an expression of gratitude for rain.

Very rarely did the two overlap. Various "days of thanksgiving" were declared at various times in the New World, ranging from a day set aside by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in 1541, to a day honoring the arrival of supply ships in Jamestown in 1610. So, competing claims for the "first Thanksgiving" have arisen.

But the first concerted effort to combine thanksgiving with harvest-home came during the Revolutionary War, when a desire for national, rather than local, holidays arose.

On Oct. 31, 1777, George Washington noted in his orderly book, "Tomorrow being the day set apart by the honorable Congress for Public Thanksgiving and praise, and duty calling us devoutly to express our grateful acknowledgement to God for the manifold blessings he has granted us."

In 1789, as president, Washington continued this tradition by declaring the last Thursday in November as a national thanksgiving day.

That practice did not become widespread, however. Some presidents continued it; some did not. For many years it was up to individual governors to set aside a day in November if they wanted it.

By the 1840s, Thanksgivings were celebrated with a huge feast in all the New England states, as well as most in the Midwest, but not as much in the South.

In 1846, Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of the Godey's Lady Book, began a drive to create a national Day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November.