The First Thanksgiving in the New World
Written and researched by Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewska, B.F.A.

The painting above is the idealic version of "The First Thanksgiving." The reality was much different:

• Pilgrims celebrated the first harvest in 1621

• The banquet lasted three days.

• Chief Massasoit was invited and he came with ninety (90) hungry warriors.

• No Native American women came.

• Five of Plymouth's women fed all 145 men. Poor souls they must have been extremely busy.

• The menu was venison, wild fowl, eel, shellfish, lobster, corn, dried fruit, probably some turkey, and homemade wine.

• There was no cranberry sauce.

• There was no pumpkin pie.

• There were no utensils, except for the men's knives that they used for many other task as well, and they used boiled-clean clamshells for their spoons.

• They ate with their fingers from wooden trenchers. Remember in Tudor times (England) they ate out of hard bread trenchers and gave them to the poor when they were done having their court celebrations. The poor were not a main concern of theirs back then.

Sources:

Polley (editor), Jane. American Folklore and Legend. Plesantville, N.Y.: The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1978.

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