history of thanks giving

Prayers of gratitude and thanks, along with special thanksgiving ceremonies, have existed across religions for centuries, especially after harvests and at various times of the year. However, the Thanksgiving holiday as we know it today in North America finds its roots in English traditions stemming from the Protestant Reformation. Although it retains the flavor of a harvest festival, the actual harvest in New England ends well before the late-November date we now associate with modern Thanksgiving.

In the English tradition, there were once numerous days of thanksgiving and thanksgiving religious services, especially during the English Reformation under Henry VIII. Back then, the calendar was filled with Church holidays—95 plus every Sunday—which required people to attend church and forego work. Reforms in 1536 by the Church of England trimmed this down to 27 holidays in the liturgical calendar. Yet the Puritan party within the Anglican Church wanted more changes. They pushed to eliminate all Church holidays except the Lord’s Day, including evangelical feasts such as Christmas and Easter, in alignment with Puritan Sabbatarianism.

These religious holidays were gradually replaced with Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving, meant to respond to significant events seen as acts of special providence. For instance, unexpected disasters or the threat of divine judgement called for fasting, while great blessings were believed to come from God, prompting days of gratitude. These were marked by Christian church services and gatherings. Historical examples include the national Days of Thanksgiving declared after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and the deliverance of Queen Anne in 1605. The failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605 even led to the creation of Guy Fawkes Day on November 5.

On the other hand, Days of Fasting were proclaimed in response to plagues in 1604 and 1622, drought in 1611, and floods in 1613. Meanwhile, annual Thanksgiving prayers were embedded into the charter of English settlers upon their safe landing in America in 1619, specifically at Berkeley Hundred in Virginia. This moment is often cited as one of the earliest seeds of the American Thanksgiving we honor today.