The First Thanksgiving Story

How They Celebrated the First Thanksgiving Feast

Hey kids, before you do your Thanksgiving crafts I want to tell you a story about the first Thanksgiving. Do you know how Thanksgiving was started and why we celebrate it today?

Well way back when in 1621 before you, your parents or even your grandparents were born (over 300 years ago), the Plymouth colonists, known as the Pilgrims, and the Wampangoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast, which is a really big meal in the fall.

This feast lasted for 3 days and is known as the first Thanksgiving. This feast marks the time where the Pilgrims and Native American Indians came together in peace and celebrated together. They were giving thanks to their great harvest, which means they were celebrating the bounty of food they had available. You see times were very tough for the Pilgrims when they first landed in America on the Mayflower.

pilgrim girl giving thanks for the first thanksgiving

pilgrim girl giving thanks for the first thanksgiving

Even though this is called the “first Thanksgiving”, the Wampangoag Indians and many other Native American Indians had always had an autumn harvest feast for many years before this. This was just the first time that the Pilgrims were there to help celebrate the harvest.

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First Thanksgiving Meal

turkey dinner

More than likely you have Turkey, a bunch of vegetables, some kind of potatoes and of course pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving plus many other types of foods. But the Pilgrims and Indians ate what they had available. You see, way back when they didn’t have refrigerators or grocery stores where they could buy what they wanted to eat. Instead they had to grow their food or hunt their food.

Although historians, who are people who study the past, don’t really know for sure the exact foods the Indians and Pilgrims ate, they do know two of the menu items. One of these foods was fowl, which is a wild bird but it may surprise you to find out that it was not a wild turkey. Instead it is believed that the “fowl” at the first Thanksgiving was duck and geese. Four men were sent “fowling”, meaning they were sent off to hunt some wild birds. The word “turkey” was used to refer to any type of wild bird. So even though you probably have turkey today, back then they may have had duck or geese as their main dish.

The other menu item the historians are sure was served at Thanksgiving is venison, or deer meat. Remember back then they had to either grow or hunt for their food, so men would go out and hunt deer. Other foods probably included what ever vegetables were in season at that time. They would pick these veggies from their fields and prepare them for their feast. Some of these vegetables where ground up to make flour, like corn meal, to make breads, rolls, etc.

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Preparing the First Thanksgiving Meal

After the men went hunting for the wild birds, it was time to prepare the feast. The pilgrim women would have cooked the wild duck or geese over the open fires. The children were busy preparing a porridge by grinding the corn into a corn meal.

The leader of the Wampanoag Indians, named Massasoit, sent his men to hunt deer as a gift to the Pilgrims for inviting them to the feast. This was a favorite dish amongst the Wampanoag indians.

Way back then, foods like cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes were not invented yet, so they did not have these common Thanksgiving foods. And as stated earlier, turkey was never mentioned in the only written account of this first feast.

Other foods that the pilgrims and indians probably shared together included the duck and venison that the men hunted plus seafood, cabbage, onions, corn and squash. Other than the venison and duck, these other foods are just a guess at what was eaten at the first Thanksgiving.

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How Times Have Changed

When you are doing your Thanksgiving crafts for kids, think about how things have changed over the years. There are many things you use today that were not available to the Pilgrims or Indians. For instance, you have electricity and light bulbs today to help you see when you are doing your Thanksgiving crafts for kids. But back then, the Pilgrims and Indians had to make their own candles just to be able to see at night.

Here are some other differences from today to way back when.

Today We Use	Back Then They Used
Box of Cornbread Mix	Indian corn ground up to make flour
Spoon	Shell
Plate	Wooden Trencher
Cup	Wooden or leather mug
Soap bought at the store	Made their own soap
Light Bulb	Made their own candles

These are just some of the differences between what you use today and what the Pilgrims and Indians used. Although Thanksgiving is very different now than it was back then, it is still a time to celebrate and say why we are thankful.

Test yourself on this story by trying this First Thanksgiving Word Search Puzzle.

Now it's on to the Thanksgiving Kids Crafts. You big kids can get on the fun too! Make it a family fun time with these kids craft ideas and add your own flair to some traditional and new fun crafts.

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