In 1620 in England, there were a group of people who all went to the same church, during the Protestant Reformation, they were called Puritans. The Puritans were a modest and simple religious group who felt that religion was not for the purpose of celebrating but giving thanks!

James I, the king of England

in 1620 following the lead of his Great Grand Father, Henry VIII, thought everyone should go to his church and celebrate his holidays. Puritans actually felt that there were to many holidays and should eliminate all but one, Day of Thanks (fasting) .He got mad when the pilgrims didn’t want to go to his church and celebrate his holidays, he said, “You go to my church or you go to jail!”

The Puritans said, “Ok, we’ll go to jail.”

Finally the king realized that the Puritans weren’t going to change their minds so he said, “You can get out of jail, but you have to leave England.”

So the Puritans set sail for America on a ship called the “Mayflower.”

The trip to America was long and hard. There were storms and the ship was really crowded.

The ship finally hit land at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts, where the Plymouth Colony was established.

When they there, it was winter and there were no food or houses. Many of the Puritans died from sickness, starvation and freezing to death.

There were some people who lived in America already. They were Native Americans and we called them Indians, incorrectly since Christopher Columbus did not discover India but the Americas. But that is a different story.

They saw the Puritans suffering and they decided to help them. This is when the Puritans became know as Pilgrims.

They showed them how to hunt and fish.

They helped them build houses out of the trees there.

They showed them how to grow corn and pumpkins.

When it was winter again, the Pilgrims had food and a place to live.

They were so happy, they said, “We need to have a feast and celebrate. We’ll invite our friends, the Indians.”

So they had a great feast that lasted for a whole week, they ate turkey, fish, deer, sweet potatoes, corn and pumpkin and they played games.

But the first thing they did was to say a prayer of Thanksgiving to God for giving them friends, food, houses and a place to live where they could go to any church they wanted.

We still have Thanksgiving today.

In Canada, Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the second Monday in October, which is Columbus Day in the United States. In the United States, it falls on the fourth Thursday of November.

The precise historical origin of the holiday is disputed. Although Americans commonly believe that the first Thanksgiving happened in 1621 at Plymouth, Massachusetts, there is strong evidence for earlier celebrations in Canada (1578) and by Spanish explorers in Florida (1565).

It was not until December 26, 1941, however, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, after pushing two years earlier to move the date earlier to give the country an economic boost, signed a bill into law with Congress, making Thanksgiving a national holiday and settling it to the fourth (but not final) Thursday in November.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!