The First Thanksgiving

The First Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God and the Native Americans for helping the pilgrims survive the brutal winter. Although half of the pilgrims that arrived on the Mayflower had already died, many more would have had it not been for the Native Americans teaching the pilgrims to harvest foods. Wonder what year that was? Anyone know?

The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three whole days providing enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Indians. Modern day traditional Thanksgiving menu often features turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. The first feast did not consist of these items. On the first feast turkey was any type of fowl that the pilgrims hunted. Pumpkin pie wasn't on the menu because there were no ovens for baking, but they did have boiled pumpkin. Cranberries weren't introduced at this time. Due to the diminishing supply of flour there was no bread of any kind. The foods included in the first feast included duck, geese, venison, fish, lobster, clams, swan, berries, dried fruit, pumpkin, squash, and many more vegetables.

Sorry, no tomato soup, canneries weren't "invented" yet!