Since the first Thanksgiving occurred, reportedly in 1621,
historians and pop culture have spread a cornucopia of tall
tales, half truths, and straight-up lies. But this Thanksgiving,
we're thankful for the truth. So before you succumb to the
delights of turkey day, allow us separate fact from fiction for
you. No one knows when the first Thanksgiving celebration
occurred. For the Pilgrims, a thanksgiving was a religious
holiday, in which they would thank God for a specific event,
such as winning a battle. For the native Americans, thanksgiving
was part of a daily routine for all the gifts of life.
Therefore, to refer to the harvest feast of 1621 as the first
Thanksgiving is categorically false. And this feast actually
occurred sometime between Sept. 21 and Nov. 11, according to
historians, and unlike modern traditions, it was three days
long. It wasn’t until the American Revolution in the 1770s that
the Continental Congress suggested a national day of
thanksgiving. And in 1817, the state of New York adopted T