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Article: The original Thanksgiving.
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- November 22, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Thanksgiving is a celebration that commemorates the harvest feast in 1621 of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians. It became a national holiday by proclamation of Abraham Lincoln in 1863.
Seeking peace and the freedom to practice the Separatist religion, 102 Pilgrims under Capt. Miles Standish sailed from England on the Mayflower on Sept. 17, 1620. When the Pilgrims landed on the New England coast on Dec. 21, 1620, they found an abandoned Wampanoag village. The Indians had called the village Patuxet; the Pilgrims renamed it Plymouth, Mass.
That first severe winter, more than half of the Pilgrims died, and the food supply they had brought with them was ...