The Feast Of The Pilgrims

What feast did the Pilgrims celebrate?

There have been many questions about the American holiday called "Thanksgiving". 

First, there is the question of when was the first Thanksgiving.

Although San Juan, Puerto Rico (a US territory) is the oldest city founded by Europeans inside any possession of the United States, there is no record of any type of religious or observation to give thanks to the Father of Truth (YHVH aka God aka THE LORD) when the headquarters of the False Church of Rome for the New World was established there in 1511, or when the city was founded in 1521 by colonists from a nearby failed Spanish colony.

There are claims that the first day for giving thanks to the Father of Truth was at Saint Augustine, Florida on its founding on 8 September 1565.  However, there was no day set aside for giving thanks to the Father of Truth on that day, but rather a normal mass of the False Church of Rome was held.

Next, there are claims that the first day for giving thanks to the Father of Truth was at San Elizario, Texas on 30 April 1598.  However, what was actually celebrated on that day was "La Toma" (Taking Possession) to celebrate claiming that part of Texas for King Philip II of Spain.

Jamestown was founded in Virginia in 1607 as the first English colony, but there are no indications that there were any celebrations other than the Eucharist (communion).  Indeed, these colonists were mostly interested in acquiring wealth and had little interest in spiritual matters.

However, a ship arrived in 1619 to establish an addition to Jamestown Colony called Berkely Hundred.  The London Company that sent the ship gave orders that the day the ship arrived was to be set aside for giving thanks to the Father of Truth as a yearly holiday.  So, the first annual yearly holiday called Thanksgiving in what became the United States was celebrated on December 4, 1619.

So, why are the Pilgrims remembered at Thanksgiving?

Though the Berkely Hundred Thanksgiving was first, it is not what is commemorated every year by Thanksgiving in the United States.  

Thanksgiving celebrates the legacy of the Pilgrims, even though they were not the first English colony, nor the most successful colony, nor the first to set aside a day for giving thanks to the Father of Truth.

The fact is that Thanksgiving as we know it was never celebrated by the Pilgrims.  It was created as a conglomeration of three different celebrations and religious observations that they held in two different years.

In 1621, apparently 25 September (Tuesday) through 27 September (Thursday), Wampanoags and Pilgrims celebrated together for three days.  This celebration was a time for giving thanks to the Father of Truth for a bountiful harvest.

There was no beer at this first Thanksgiving celebration.  There was a general lack of ingredients like barley, and the small barley crop was used for bread.  However, there was wine at this first Thanksgiving celebration in Plymouth Colony.

Wild Concord grapes grew in abundance around Plymouth Colony.  This first Thanksgiving was held at the time of their harvest.

In 1623, in July two more ships came to Plymouth Colony bringing in other colonists, most of whom were what the Pilgrims referred to as "The Strangers".

("Stranger" was applied to any European that was not a Pilgrim.  They got the term from the Book of Truth (The Bible).  A stranger was anyone who was not a descendant of Israel, but lived among the descendants of Israel (Exodus 12:49).)

There was a drought when the Strangers arrived.  

After that, a third ship arrived in late September looking for supplies, when the Pilgrims were observing a fast where they prayed for rain.  Rain came and a few days later, Pilgrims and Strangers joined together in a feast that lasted for over a week that ended in early October to give thanks to the Father of Truth for a bountiful harvest.  Again, there were grapes and wine, but no beer.

The third ship left for England a couple of days later.

The only single day religious observation among these three events was the one day fast for rain in late September.  The celebration of giving thanks with the Wampanoag lasted three days, and the holiday of giving thanks with the Strangers lasted over a week.  There was no one day holiday called "Thanksgiving".

For this reason, some have argued that the Pilgrims actually fasted on the first Thanksgiving.  However, that was not a day when they were giving thanks for a bountiful harvest, but rather one that was spent praying for their harvest to be saved.

Many aspects of these three different events have been combined to make a single day holiday called, "Thanksgiving".  

For example, the Pilgrims and their Native American friends went turkey hunting on the morning of the first day and killed enough for everyone to have turkey for a week.  This is the source of the tradition of eating turkey on Thanksgiving.

However, they also caught an abundance of fish and the Wampanoag gave them five deer that they had killed in a short hunting trip on the second day of this three day celebration.  This was more meat than they could eat before it spoiled, but the Wampanoag taught them how to smoke meat to make it last through the winter.

This holiday was mostly celebrated between mid September to mid October in various states after this, always on Thursday, the day of the week that they spent feasting on the meat they had gotten on the previous two days in 1621.  It often to coincide with the time of the ripening of wild Concord grapes in each local.

So, since the Pilgrims were not celebrating a single day holiday called Thanksgiving at the end of November, then what were they celebrating?

The answer to that question begins with understanding the religion of the Pilgrims.

There were many groups among the Children of Truth (those who obey The Father of Truth because they love Him) that disagreed with many of the teachings of the Church of England. These teachings were inherited from the False Church of Rome.  Some groups tried to purify the Church of England of these teachings from within.  They were called Puritans.

However, some Puritans gave up all hope of purifying the Church of England from these practices.  They advocated complete separation from the Church of England.  They were known as Separatists.

However, the Separatists were not all in agreement with each other.  Some were Calvinists, but others were not.

Most Separatists rejected celebrating the holidays of the False Church of Rome.  They wanted nothing to do with these holidays that came from idol worship.  In "The Mensch who killed Christmas", they would have been those who heeded the warnings of the Mensch.

Among those Separatists which were not Calvinists, was a group of Separatists who followed the teachings of Robert Browne.  They were known as Brownists.

Brownists took the Book of Truth as the final authority in all matters.  They not only did not observe the holidays of the False Church of Rome, but they took things a lot further in following the Man of Truth (Yeshua HaMashiach aka Jesus Christ) than other Separatists.  

Brownists observed the commandments of the Law of Truth (Torah aka The Law), because the Man of Truth said that these commandments were still in effect as long as Heaven and Earth were still standing (Matthew 5:18).

So, Brownists asked the Father of Truth, "What's for dinner" and only ate what He said was food.  They also knew who changed the Sabbath, so they congregated on Saturday - the actual Sabbath.  

The holidays Brownists celebrated were those that form the acts of The Greatest Play Ever.  They knew that it's not just a Jewish thing to keep these holidays.  

Brownists knew that these were the holidays of the Father of Truth (Leviticus 23:1-4).  They knew when these holidays occurred, including the three that happened in the Fall (Leviticus 23:5-38).  They knew that these were not holidays created by Moses (Leviticus 23:44).  

Brownists knew that the Man of Truth kept these holidays, including the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) (John 7:2-10).  They knew that Paul the Jew kept these holidays with the Gentile Children of Truth (Acts 20:6).  They knew that Paul the Jew continue to observe holidays like The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), also called The Fast, because everyone fasted on that day (Acts 27:9).

Some Brownists took separation from the Church of England even further when they were persecuted by the English government for their observing different holidays than the rest of England.  They decided that they had to not just separate from the Church of England, but from England itself.  So, they fled to Leiden, Holland.

These Brownists were the Pilgrims.

The Pilgrims continued to publish books and tracts with their teachings in English from Leiden.  They  smuggled these books into England continually.  More and more people became Brownists.  The King of England was concerned that this would cause a civil war.  

The King of England could not send people to Holland to arrest the Pilgrims, because Holland had made it plain that such action would be a breach of its sovereignty.  Holland was the only ally of England at the time, since most of the rest of Europe was still under the control of the False Church of Rome.  

However, after living in Leiden for a while, the Pilgrims realized that Human Secularism was perhaps an even greater problem than the Church of England.  So, they decide that they needed to not just separate from England, but to separate from Europe.

So, when the Pilgrims sent a representative to the King of England asking for a charter for them to start an English colony in the New World, he was all too glad to grant it. It was a no lose proposition for him.

If the Pilgrims were successful, then England would have another colony in the New World.  If not, then they certainly would not be able to cause any more problems for England.  Also, their publishing books in Holland and smuggling them into England, which was leading to ever greater resentment of the Church of England in England, would come to an end.

So, that in the Fall of that first year in the New World, 1621, they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles, which ran from 21 September to 28 September.  They simply invited the Wampanoag to join them for three days of that eight day feast - 25 September (Tuesday) thru 27 September (Thursday).

The first two days they hunted and fished with the Wampanoag.  On the third day, Thursday, they had a grand feast featuring the meat they got from hunting.  On the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, 28 September (Friday), they took down their temporary shelters and congregated together.

(Note that England and its colonies did not adopt the Gregorian Calendar until 1752.  The Pilgrims and those Englishmen who encountered them were still using the dates given by the Julian calendar in their writings.  This means that 21 September 1621 fell on a Friday for the Pilgrims, while it fell on a Tuesday for most of Europe.)

Then in the Fall of their third year in the New World, 1623, they sought the Father of Truth for rain during a fast.  This was the Fast of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) that fell on 25 September 1623.  This was just after the arrival of the third ship.

This was a one day observance like Thanksgiving.

The Pilgrims then observed the Feast of Tabernacles from 30 September to 7 October.  This is the celebration joined in by those from the third ship that stopped by the colony to get supplies.

The rain that saved their crops ended a couple of days later, and the ship was able to return to England laden with supplies, including pumpkins. 

Thus began the association of pumpkins with Thanksgiving, instead of grapes.

The Pilgrims found it providential that there was such an abundance of wild Concord grapes in their colony.  The wild Concord grapes that were eaten and the wine that was made from them were associated with the Feast of Tabernacles.

The Feast of Tabernacles is also a harvest festival that occurs when the fruit has been gathered in (Leviticus 23:39-43). Everyone is to bring in part of their harvest for a feast and make sure that everyone, even Strangers, have plenty to eat (Deuteronomy 14:22-27).  The Feast of Tabernacles is the time to bring in the wine at the end of the grape harvest (Deuteronomy 16:13-15).

The grapes native to the land of Israel start ripening just before the start of Summer at the earliest and finish ripening a couple of days before the Fall Equinox at the latest.  So, the grapes native to the land of Israel are always finished ripening before the start of the Feast of Tabernacles.

However, the wild Concord grapes native to America do not start ripening until about the last week of August and do not finish ripening until the last week of November.  There have even been cases where clusters of wild Concord grapes have been harvested after cold weather set in and killed the vine that grew them.  

(Even cultivars derived from wild Concord grapes that have been introduced into the land of Israel do not finish ripening until November in the Golan Heights.)

This has led to confusion over when the Pilgrims had the three events that inspired Thanksgiving, with the first week of September being the earliest possible date and last week of November being the latest possible date.

However, pumpkins finished ripening right before the Feast of Tabernacles where the Pilgrims lived. So, pumpkins became a more reliable indicator of the time of the Feast of Tabernacles than wild Concord grapes for the Pilgrims.

Also, pumpkins were introduced to the Pilgrims by the Wampanoags and were definitely part of the feast in 1621.

Lastly, pumpkins are indigenous to the New Word, and most are grown in the northern United States where the Pilgrims held their observations of the Feast of Tabernacles.  Pumpkins are definitely more American than apple pie.

Pumpkins also play a part in answering another question:

Why is Thanksgiving observed in November? 

Answering this questions begins with clarifying some misconceptions about when the Pilgrims had their celebration for giving thanks for a bountiful harvest each year.

Some historians have suggested that the Pilgrims were celebrating Michaelmas, and it became transformed into Thanksgiving. 

Michaelmas was observed as a harvest festival in England on 29 September every year.  It was close to the time of the Feast of Tabernacles in 1621 and 1623. The Feast of Tabernacles in 1621 ended one day before Michaelmas and the Feast of Tabernacles in 1623 began one day after Michaelmas.

Michaelmas was a day devoted to the archangel Michael.  The Book of Truth warns against worshiping angels (Colossians 2:18-19).  

As Brownists, the Pilgrims certainly did not celebrate Michaelmas.  In fact, Michaelmas is the very kind of thing that they came to the New World to get away from!

Another source of confusion is how the Pilgrims made yearly proclamations of the time of their celebration.  Some years, they were celebrating in September and other years in October.  This is because the Feast of Tabernacles is based on a lunar calendar, which causes it to move around in a one month window on the Julian and Gregorian calendars for same reasons as Easter.

As more of the Strangers moved into Plymouth Colony, the nature of the celebration began to change.

Eventually, the Strangers had a one day civil celebration to commemorate the Thursday when Wampanoags and Pilgrims feasted together on the meat that they had gained hunting the previous two days.  So, they shrunk the eight day Feast of Tabernacles for giving thanks to the Father of Truth down to a single day observation like the Fast.  The date of this civil holiday was declared by the governor of the colony and varied from year to year.

For a while, it occurred on the last Thursday of the Feast of Tabernacles, which was still being observed by the ever shrinking percentage of Plymouth Colony who were Pilgrims.  This still placed it after the pumpkin harvest there.

As the Strangers moved out of Plymouth Colonies to other colonies, they took the tradition of setting aside a Thursday after the pumpkin harvest to give thanks to the Father of Truth.  

Governors of other colonies began making yearly declarations of a day of thanksgiving to the Father of Truth on a Thursday following the pumpkin harvest.  Many colonies eventually set this holiday of Thanksgiving to be the first Thursday after the latest possible date for the pumpkin harvest.

By the time of the American Revolution, all thirteen colonies were observing Thanksgiving.  Ironically, Plymouth Colony, where it had started, cease to exist and had been absorbed into Massachusetts Colony.

However, the time of the pumpkin harvest was not consistent from one colony to another.  So, in a northern colony like Vermont, Thanksgiving could be in September, while in a southern colony like Georgia, it could be in October.

So, in 1777, the Continental Congress proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving.  

Like the first and eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles, this national day of thanksgiving was a day where people were to rest from their usual work and recreational activities to congregate together to give thanks to the Father of Truth for a bountiful harvest and other blessings throughout the year.

When George Washington became the first American President, he made a yearly proclamation of the date of this national day of thanksgiving.  Most American Presidents that came after him did the same, except for Thomas Jefferson.

However, this did not really bring any kind of uniformity among the states.  

The day proclaimed each year as a national day of thanksgiving could never coincide with the day observed by every state.  So, in some states people would observe the national day declared by the president, some would observe the day determined by their state, and some people would observe both.

So, in 1863, President Lincoln called for a nation day of thanksgiving for the bountiful prosperity of America despite the ravages of the Civil War that as raging.  Thanksgiving has been observed as a national holiday ever since that time.

President Lincoln set the date to be yearly on the last Thursday of November.  This date insured that the last pumpkin harvest in the United States, the second Florida pumpkin harvest, would always be over by Thanksgiving. 

(Florida has two pumpkin planting seasons, one in March and one in August.  Pumpkins are ready to harvest around 100 days after planting.  So the end of the second Florida pumpkin season is towards the end of November.)

This date also allowed Thanksgiving to replace Evacuation Day, a de facto national holiday on 25 November to commemorate the day the British finished evacuating at the end of the American Revolution.

So, how did Thanksgiving get moved to fourth Thursday of November?

Every American president after Lincoln continued to declare the last Thursday of November to be Thanksgiving Day until 1939. 

President Franklyn Roosevelt declared the fourth Thursday of November to be Thanksgiving Day, since 1939 had five Thursdays.  He did this at the request of the founder of the department store that became Macy's, so there would be a longer Christmas shopping season.  

(Most Americans refused to engage in Christmas shopping until after Thanksgiving, because they did not want any distractions from the importance of the purpose of Thanksgiving.)

He then declared the third Thursday of November to be Thanksgiving Day in 1940 and 1941, since it those years had four Thursdays and he wanted to extend the Christmas shopping season.

This led to the same confusion that President Lincoln had ended.  About half the states celebrated Thanksgiving on the day declared by President Roosevelt, about half celebrated Thanksgiving on the day established by President Lincoln, and a few celebrated both.

So in 1942, the American Congress passed a law setting Thanksgiving Day as the fourth Thursday of November every year, which was a compromise with President Roosevelt.  The date of Thanksgiving has been set at that every since then.

However, this began to move Thanksgiving away from its meaning.

This focusing on the pursuit of wealth over the pursuit of the Father of Truth has led to the disintegration of Thanksgiving.

For most Americans, Thanksgiving is no longer a day for putting aside pursuits of business and personal pleasure to spend giving thanks to the Father of Truth for every good thing in their life.  For them, it has became a day to eat too much food and pursue pleasure by doing things like watching football. 

For some of them, a few minutes of Thanksgiving are spent in giving thanks to the Father of Truth.  For the rest, there is not even the thought of giving thanks to the Father of Truth for anything.

For some, Thanksgiving has became just another opportunity to increase their wealth.

For many, Thanksgiving is nothing more than preparation day for the season of spending money that they do have to buy other people things that they do not need, so they can impress people that they do not like.  They are poised to jump into debt with no thought of escaping the Christmas Trap.  Like turkeys, Thanksgiving is not really a good thing for them. 

This change away from the original purpose of Thanksgiving came about through a subtle influence of the descendants of immigrants who did not come to America to worship the Father of Truth.  They have no connection to the Pilgrims or the Father of Truth, so they really have no connection to Thanksgiving.

It is not that different than how the Strangers and their descendants brought about Thanksgiving.

The Strangers were not Brownists like the Pilgrims.  They had no connection to the annual eight day camp meeting of the Pilgrims.  So, they created a one day religious holiday for giving thanks to the Father of Truth based on the different aspects of the Feast of Tabernacles celebrated by the Pilgrims.  

The Strangers especially focused on that Thursday in 1621 when Native Americans and European Americans feasted together as friends. 

(Since almost all of the Strangers were Separatists or Puritans, they still longed for the day when the Man of Truth would bring peace and cause all people to live in harmony with each other.  They too longed for his kingdom, where everyone would have plenty to eat.)

So, the Strangers had a civil authority declare the day of Thanksgiving each year, because their religious leaders could not agree on when to observe Thanksgiving.  This is because they did not understand why the Feast of the Pilgrims started on a different day in September or October every year.

So, the Strangers and their descendants created an American holiday called Thanksgiving that all of the American Children of Truth could celebrate together.

In the same way, the meaning of Thanksgiving has been changed to something completely different than the religious holiday that they intended.

So, now there are many in America who are against Thanksgiving altogether.

Some people are just party poopers.  They do not want to celebrate anything at anytime for any reason.

Some people see Thanksgiving as a yearly inconvenience to their endless pursuit of bigger, better, newer stuff.  

They loathe the one day interruption to their business.  They vainly imagine that everything they have that they got by their own hand.  They do not consider that the Father of Truth gave them their talents and health that allowed them to gain wealth.

Some people object to Thanksgiving because it is not a celebration commanded in the Law of Truth.  

They do not consider the whole counsel of the Father of Truth.  If they did, then they would understand that the Children of Truth were right to celebrate many other things in the Book of Truth.  They would know that the Man of Truth celebrated Chanukah and the Children of Truth threw a Purim Party every year.  They would know that it is right to set aside a day to give thanks to the Father of Truth.

Some people object to Thanksgiving due to mistreatment of Native Americans by European Americans since the time of the Pilgrims.  They point to things like the Great Removal of the Five Civilized Tribes.

For these reasons, they and many Native Americans see Thanksgiving as nothing more a celebration of Europeans invading their homeland to take their land.  They see the arrival of the Europeans as the arrival of sickness, famine, disease, and war that devastated their population.

So, they call Thanksgiving by other names like "Unthanksgiving" and "Thankstaking".  

Is there anything for the First Nations to be thankful for at Thanksgiving?

The truth is that there was sickness, famine, disease, and war devastating Native Americans long before the day when worlds collided.  

The archeological evidence shows that there were signs great civilizations that were gone before the first European ever showed up.  These include the ruins of cities like Mesa Verde.

Yet, by the time the first Spaniard showed up in the American Southwest, there was no visible evidence of any of these cities nor was there any memory of them among the Native Americans.  The Pueblo tribe alone seemed to remember the Anasazi, which means "the Ancient Ones", who built Mesa Verde.

There is much evidence that plagues of some sort as well as famines brought on by droughts contributed to the rapid depopulation of these cities.

The Native Americans had no written language when Europeans encountered them, but archeological evidence shows that there were at least five written languages in their lands at one time.  This includes things like birch bark scrolls that contain a written language that no one has been able to decipher or even determine which tribe spoke that language.

They also lost technologies like smelting metal and the wheel.  

Metal artifacts with wooden handles that have been carbon dated before the arrival of the first European have been found in the American Southwest.  Yet, when the first Europeans came, the only metal objects among Native Americans were those made from copper, which is the only metal that exists naturally in a pure form.  

Also, Native Americans did not use wheels, despite a child's toy with wheels that was found, which was dated long before the arrival of the Europeans.

Native Americans were very adept at war before the Europeans showed up.  

When the Vikings tried to settle in North America around 1,000 AD, they were driven out by the Cree tribe.  Native Americans taught Europeans how to fight in their own style, which was crucial to the Americans winning independence from Britain.  Many of the tactics used by the American army were first developed by Native Americans.

Native Americans had became so adept from centuries of fighting each other before a single European set foot on any part of the New World.  Some tribes wiped out other tribes completely.

So, Native Americans, like all people, have always had sickness, famine, disease, and war devastating their populations.

In their case, according to the oral history of many tribes, there had been in a long decline in their numbers that started long before they ever saw a European.  

For example, the oral history of the Muskogee (Creek) Nation tells of a large empire they had, which traded as far away as Venezuela.  

This empire was destroyed by a massive civil war.  So, the descendants of the survivors from that war were confined to a much smaller area with a much smaller population by the time the first European encountered them.  

There is DNA, linguistic, and other evidence to support their oral history.

The cause of all misery experienced by Native Americans was being part of the human race.  Death - and everything that causes it - came from the sin that lived in the flesh that they inherited from the first man - Adam (Romans 5:12).

Like all people, the ancestors of Native Americans once knew the Father of Truth, but had turned away from him to worship things that He had created, instead of Him (Romans 1:21-23).  So, they began to do all kind of terrible things to each other (Romans 1:28-31).

So, Native Americans were alienated from the life that comes only from the Father of Truth (Ephesians 4:17-19).  They were cut off from the source of all good gifts (James 1:17).

Yet, even though they had forgotten the Father of Truth, He had not forgotten them.

Native Americans were lost and without hope - until Europeans like the Pilgrims were sent to tell them how they could come back to the Father of Truth (Ephesians 2:11-13).

Native Americans could not have ever heard the Good News, if Europeans like the Pilgrims had not been sent to tell them the Good News (Romans 10:14-15).  No one can believe the Gospel without first hearing the Word of Truth (Romans 10:16-17).

What some Europeans have meant for evil, the Father of Truth turned for good to the saving of many Native Americans (Genesis 50:20).  The Pilgrims were delivered by the Father of Truth from both English men and Native Americans to tell the Good News to the Native Americans that they were sent to (Acts 26:17-18).  The troubles that came upon Pilgrims in Europe brought about the Good News being taken further than it had ever been taken before - to Native Americans (Philippians 1:12).

In like manner, some European Americans have done some terrible things to Native Americans, but the Father of Truth has caused all things to work together for those Native Americans who have come into the House of Truth (Romans 8:28).  The temporary things that they have suffered cannot compare to the eternal things that they have gained (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

So, those Native Americans who have came into the House of Truth have been reconciled by the blood that the Man of Truth shed when he died a torturous death upon the cross, and are no longer alienated from the Father of Truth (Colossians 1:20-22).  They have been called out darkness to live in the marvelous light that comes from being part of the Children of Truth (1 Peter 2:9-10).

So, Native Americans really have more to be thankful for at Thanksgiving than anyone else. 

The Man of Truth is not just the hope of the Almodadi, but he is the hope of all people.

The Father of Truth so loved all people, that He gave the Man of Truth to die for all people (John 3:16).  He showed His love for all people by having the Man of Truth die for their sins while they were still His enemies, so they could be reconciled to Him (Romans 5:8-10).

The Father of Truth now commands all people to repentance, or they will suffer under the judgment that will come from the Man of Truth, whom He raised from the dead (Acts 17:30-31).  So, surrender control of your life to the Man of Truth (Romans 10:9).  Today, is your day to follow in the footsteps of the Pilgrims and experience the true meaning of Thanksgiving (2 Corinthians 6:1-2).

Come into the House of Truth!