Nov: Plymouth Plantation, MA: The Pilgrim colony of Plymouth: According to the mythology surrounding the colony, neighboring Indian Chief Massasoit offered the first “Thanksgiving”—together with the Pilgrims at this point in time. The American Thanksgiving tradition is consequently venerated as having originated here in Plymouth.
For the record, research scholars allocate the honor of the actual first Thanksgiving to the town of Saint Augustine, Florida in 1565 CE. But mythology sometimes trumps
historicity.
Aided by a local Native American Squanto, the Pilgrim colony, under the leadership of John Carver and William Bradford, is able to establish a treaty and entente with Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribe, which procures the colony’s security and ultimate success.
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In any event, Thanksgiving, a traditional North American holiday, which is a form of harvest holiday, is often commemorated as a thanksgiving to God for a family’s blessings. Thanksgiving, a late November holiday in the USA, parallels the Biblically–mandated Jewish “harvest holiday” of Succoth 40–70 days earlier in the fall worldwide. Indian corn is included in Jewish Succoth commemorations (in the Americas).
Venerating God, paralleling Succoth, celebrating freedom, honoring country, work ethic, and family values. Thanksgiving family dinner is not an optional get–together for Jewish American families. The only option is who gets to host.
The touchstones of Pilgrim–American lore, have become embedded in Thanksgiving Holiday, celebrated in the USA specifically on the 4th Thursday of November, and in Canada a touch earlier on the second Monday in October. (The Canadian date would generally intersect with Succoth, which falls between mid–September to mid–October.)
Plymouth Governor William Bradford’s important journal “Of Plymouth Plantation” (spanning the years 1620–1647) provides a chronicle of the Plymouth Colony’s history through his personal lens. The work, in turn, was pivotal in embedding Plymouth’s “thanksgiving” as the “initial” Thanksgiving in American lore.