The Pilgrims set aground at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620. Their first winter was devastating. Weakened by the seven-week crossing and the need to establish housing, they came down with pneumonia and consumption. They began to die By the spring, they had lost 46 of the original 102 who sailed on the Mayflower.
The Pilgrims obviously needed help and it came from an English-speaking member of the Wampanoag nation, Squanto. Squanto decided to stay with the Pilgrims for the next few months and teach them how to survive.
The harvest of 1621 was a bountiful one and the remaining colonists decided to celebrate with a feast.
But the only letter that we have telling us about the first Thanksgiving praises God for the harvest, makes reference to the "goodness of God" in providing for them, and says that the feast was held so that they "might after a special manner rejoice together."4
The settlers asked Squanto and the leader of the Wampanoags, Massasoit, to bring their immediate family and to dine with them. The feast lasted three days. The Pilgrims and Indians ate outdoors at large tables and competed together in tests of skill and strength.
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