The Pilgrims had their legendary Thanksgiving at their first harvest, but it was never made into an annual event.  When William Bradford's History Of Plymouth Plantation was rediscovered in 1854, it brought renewed interest and attention to Pilgrim history; and the rapidly approaching Civil War brought a renewed interest in the history of the settlement of the Northern states to counterbalance the earlier "founding of America" at Jamestown, Virginia, a Southern state.
Source: mayflowerhistory.com/Introduction/commonmyths.php

The first feast wasn't repeated, so it wasn't the beginning of a tradition. In fact, the colonists didn't even call the day Thanksgiving. To them, a thanksgiving was a religious holiday in which they would go to church and thank God for a specific event, such as the winning of a battle. On such a religious day, the types of recreational activities that the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians participated in during the 1621 harvest feast. The feast was a secular celebration, so it never would have been considered a thanksgiving in the pilgrims minds.
Source: history.com/topics/mayflower-myths

The Plymouth colony observed an actual "day of thanksgiving" (a religious event) in July, 1623, for what they perceived was God's intervention in saving them from a drought. But, there are very few records after this that describe anymore thanksgivings. The only place where an almost unbroken record of thanksgiving observances can be found is in Connecticut, and this state law offers a clue as to why:

Whoever neglects to attend worship on the Sabbath, Fast, and Thanksgiving, without sufficient cause, shall be fined five shillings for every such trespass.
New Haven, Connecticut Laws 1643, The Ecclesiastical History of New England 1855

The First Thanksgiving is a myth associated with the 1621 harvest celebration at Plymouth. Historians at Plimoth Plantation do not use this name because what happened in 1621 wasn't a part of how our modern Thanksgiving was started. On this website,[plimoth.org] this event is called the 1621 harvest celebration.
Source: plimoth.org > Glossary

The Pilgrims did not call this harvest festival a "Thanksgiving,"  although they did give thanks to God.  To them, a Day of Thanksgiving was purely religious.  The first recorded religious Day of Thanksgiving was held in 1623 in response to a providential rainfall.
Source: pilgrimhall.org

In 1841, a historian named Alexander Young called the1621 harvest celebration "The First Thanksgiving." He read the letter that described the events in 1621 and thought it sounded like the Thanksgiving that many Americans celebrated at that time.This was the first time that the 1621 harvest celebration was called "The First Thanksgiving."
Source: plimoth.org > Glossary

Before President Lincoln's Thanksgiving proclamation, Americans outside New England did not usually celebrate the holiday. (The Pilgrims, incidentally, didn't become part of the holiday until late in the nineteenth century. Until then, Thanksgiving was simply a day of thanks, not a day to remember the Pilgrims.)
Source: hnn.us

This is the most common myth regarding the origins of Thanksgiving. There are many myths about who the Pilgrims were, what they believed and their relationship to Thanksgiving. Read more about why the Pilgrims didn't not create Thanksgiving Day.

The original feast in 1621 occurred sometime between September 21 and November 11. Unlike our modern holiday, it was three days long. The event was based on English harvest festivals, which traditionally occurred around the 29th of September. Gradually the custom prevailed in New England of annually celebrating thanksgiving after the harvest.

During the American Revolution a yearly day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress. In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom, and by the middle of the 19th century many other states had done the same. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a day of thanksgiving as the last Thursday in November. Since then, each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation.

To see what the first Thanksgiving was like you have to go to: Texas. Texans claim the first Thanksgiving in America actually took place in little San Elizario, a community near El Paso, in 1598 -- twenty-three years before the Pilgrims' festival. For several years they have staged a reenactment of the event that culminated in the Thanksgiving celebration: the arrival of Spanish explorer Juan de Onate on the banks of the Rio Grande. De Onate is said to have held a big Thanksgiving festival after leading hundreds of settlers on a grueling 350-mile long trek across the Mexican desert.

Then again, you may want to go to Virginia.. At the Berkeley Plantation on the James River they claim the first Thanksgiving in America was held there on December 4th, 1619....two years before the Pilgrims' festival....and every year since 1958 they have reenacted the event. In their view it's not the Mayflower we should remember, it's the Margaret, the little ship which brought 38 English settlers to the plantation in 1619. The story is that the settlers had been ordered by the London company that sponsored them to commemorate the ship's arrival with an annual day of Thanksgiving. Hardly anybody outside Virginia has ever heard of this Thanksgiving, but in 1963 President Kennedy officially recognized the plantation's claim.

According to historian George Willison, who devoted his life to the subject, the story about the rock is all malarkey, a public relations stunt pulled off by townsfolk to attract attention. What Willison found out is that the Plymouth Rock legend rests entirely on the dubious testimony of Thomas Faunce, a ninety-five year old man, who told the story more than a century after the Mayflower landed. Unfortunately, not too many people ever heard how we came by the story of Plymouth Rock. Willison's book came out at the end of World War II and Americans had more on their minds than Pilgrims then. So we've all just gone merrily along repeating the same old story as if it's true when it's not. And anyway, the Pilgrims didn't land in Plymouth first. They first made landfall at Provincetown. Of course, the people of Plymouth stick by hoary tradition. Tour guides insist that Plymouth Rock is THE rock.

"...90 or so Wampanoag made a surprise appearance at the settlement’s gate, doubtlessly unnerving the 50 or so colonists."

This is not a name that the English people at Plymouth called themselves. Historians at Plimoth Plantation call these people the English colonists.

The Mayflower passengers (at least those passengers that were from the Pilgrims' church in Leiden) are more properly classified as Separatists.  Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England, while Separatists took a more extreme approach of wanting to separate entirely from it.  Theologically, however, there was not very much difference between Separatists and Puritans.  Both Puritanism and the Pilgrims' separatist movement, as well as Presbyterianism, descend from John Calvin and the Calvinists of the mid-1500s. Puritans are more traditionally associated with the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and began arriving in America starting about 1629 under the leadership of Governor John Winthrop. After the English civil war, Puritans and Pilgrim-Separatist movements became rather indistinguishable, though they and their descendants tended to keep to separate Colonies even into the end of the 17th century.

For More Information: The Pilgrims' pastor John Robinson puts forth his beliefs on his Separatist movement in his book, The Justification for the Separation from the Church of England (1610).  The distinctions between Separatists and Puritans are covered in depth in Orthodoxy in Massachusetts, 1630-1650, by Perry Miller, and is briefly summarized in Plymouth Colony: Its History and Its People, 1620-1691, by Eugene Aubrey Stratton, and The Puritans, by Thomas H. Johnson.
Source: www.mayflowerhistory.com/Introduction/commonmyths.php

Though even presidents get this wrong -- Ronald Reagan once referred to Puritan John Winthrop as a Pilgrim -- Pilgrims and Puritans were two different groups. The Pilgrims came over on the Mayflower and lived in Plymouth. The Puritans, arriving a decade later, settled in Boston. The Pilgrims welcomed heterogeneousness. Some (so-called"strangers") came to America in search of riches, others (so-called"saints") came for more complex reasons. The Puritans, in contrast, came over to America strictly in search of religious freedom. Or, to be technically correct, they came over in order to be able to practice their religion freely. They did not welcome dissent. That we confuse Pilgrims and Puritans would have horrified both. Puritans considered the Pilgrims incurable utopians. While both shared the belief that the Church of England had become corrupt, only the Pilgrims believed it was beyond redemption. They therefore chose the path of Separatism. Puritans held out the hope the church would reform.
Source: hnn.us/articles/406.html

What did the Pilgrims eat at their Thanksgiving festival? They didn't have corn on the cob, apples, pears, potatoes or even cranberries. No one knows if they had turkey, although they were used to eating turkey. The only food we know they had for sure was deer. (And they didn't eat with a fork; they didn't have forks back then.)

So how did we get the idea that you have turkey and cranberry and such on Thanksgiving? It was because the Victorians prepared Thanksgiving that way.

When a Mayflower passenger died, an inventory of the person's estate was taken by the Court, for purposes of probate. These inventories show that John Howland had two red waistcoats. William Bradford had a green gown, violet cloak, lead colored suit with silver buttons, and a red waistcoat. And William Brewster had green pants, a red cap, and a violet coat. Black, white, grey, and brown were the most common colors worn by the Pilgrims, but were definitely not the only colors.  The Pilgrims did not have buckles on their clothing, shoes, or hats.  Buckles did not come into fashion until the late 1600s--more appropriate for the Salem Witchcraft trials time period than for the Pilgrims' time period.
Source: mayflowerhistory.com

Not only did they not dress in black, they did not wear those funny buckles, weird shoes, or black steeple hats. So how did we get the idea of the buckles? Plimoth Plantation historian James W. Baker explains that in the nineteenth century, when the popular image of the Pilgrims was formed, buckles served as a kind of emblem of quaintness. That's the reason illustrators gave Santa buckles. Even the blunderbuss, with which Pilgrims are identified, was a symbol of quaintness. The blunderbuss was mainly used to control crowds. It wasn't a hunting rifle. But it looks out of date and fits the Pilgrim stereotype.
Source: hnn.us

Buckles did not come into fashion until later in the seventeenth century and black and white were commonly worn only on Sunday and formal occasions. Women typically dressed in red, earthy green, brown, blue, violet, and gray, while men wore clothing in white, beige, black, earthy green, and brown.
Source: history.com/topics/mayflower-myths

There is no historical evidence that suggests this is true. There are only two paragraphs in existance that describe the "first thanksgiving", and neither mention God, the scriptures or any of God's festivals. You can read them both here: Primary historical sources for the "first thanksgiving"

Even though other presidents offered Thanksgiving proclamations, Lincoln is often given credit for starting Thanksgiving Day. The reseaon he is erroneously given credit, is simply because of
because he was the first

President Lincoln was the first president to heed the requests of Sarah Hale to proclaim a day of thanksgiving on the "last Thursday in November",  thus starting the Presidential tradition (which survives until now)  But there are a few reasons he didn't actually start Thanksgiving:

1. Thanksigivings had been celebrated for many years before he proclaim a day of Thanksgiving
2. Other presidents before him proclaimed Thanksgivings, so he wasn't the first
3. Sarah Hale, the mother of Thanksgiving said he didn't, and offers explanation as to why.

Because George Washington was the first president to proclaim a day of thanksgiving, he is often given credit for starting Thanksgiving Day. But like Lincoln, this is another myth. Even the King of England had proclaimed days of thanksgiving before Washington, so he cannot recieve credit for starting Thanksgiving Day.

Later, other presidents refused to offer Thanksgivings because of the relgious and political turmoil it caused, or had the potential to cause. Both the authors of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights agreed that government sponsored days of thanksgiving, were a bad idea.  In fact a day of thanksgiving was often an unpleasant burden on colonial America.

The only furniture that the pilgrims brought on the Mayflower was chests and boxes. They constructed wooden furniture once they settled in Plymouth.

No Pilgrim ever lived in a log cabin. The log cabin did not appear in America until late in the seventeenth century, when it was introduced by Germans and Swedes. The very term"log cabin" cannot be found in print until the 1770s. Log cabins were virtually unknown in England at the time the Pilgrims arrived in America. So what kind of dwellings did the Pilgrims inhabit? As you can see if you visit Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims lived in wood clapboard houses made from sawed lumber.

The First Thanksgiving is a myth associated with the 1621 harvest celebration at Plymouth. Historians at Plimoth Plantation do not use this name because what happened in 1621 wasn't a part of how our modern Thanksgiving was started. On this website,[plimoth.org] this event is called the 1621 harvest celebration.
Source: plimoth.org > Glossary

The Pilgrims did not call this harvest festival a "Thanksgiving,"  although they did give thanks to God.  To them, a Day of Thanksgiving was purely religious.  The first recorded religious Day of Thanksgiving was held in 1623 in response to a providential rainfall.
Source: pilgrimhall.org

This myth is caused by a failure to elaborate on the facts.  The Pilgrims in their writings and documents (including the Mayflower Compact itself) refer a place called "Northern Virginia."  However, students are often left to assume that "Northern Virginia" is relative to the modern-day State of Virginia, thus suggesting the Mayflower was off course by almost 500 miles.  This misconception that the Mayflower was drastically off course has found its way into some otherwise decent documentaries and histories.  In fact, the Virginia Company (and thus the "state" of Virginia at the time) had rights to almost the entire eastern seaboard of America.  When the Pilgrims say "Northern Virginia," they are referring to a region which on modern maps would be roughly southern New York State.

Based on numerous contemporary accounts, including Bradford's own History, it is quite clear that the Pilgrims originally intended to settle the Hudson River region (near Long Island, New York)--a part of Northern Virginia (although the Dutch also claimed the New York region).  Once Cape Cod was sighted, they turned south to head for the Hudson River, but encountered treacherous seas and nearly shipwrecked.  They then decided to return to Cape Cod rather than risk another attempt to head south.  So in reality they were only a day or two's sail away from their intended destination--quite accurate given the navigational tools in use at the time.
Source: http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/Introduction/commonmyths.php


The Pilgrims were in fact planning to settle in Virginia, but not the modern-day state of Virginia. They were part of the Virginia Company, which had the rights to most of the eastern seaboard of the U.S. The pilgrims had intended to go to the Hudson River region in New York State, which would have been considered "Northern Virginia," but they landed in Cape Cod instead. Treacherous seas prevented them from venturing further south.
Source: history.com/topics/mayflower-myths

In the 19th century it was generally thought that the Mayflower's captain was Thomas Jones, a pirate and some-time slave trader.  However in the early 20th century it was conclusively proven that the Mayflower was owned and captained by Christopher Jones of Harwich and later Rotherhithe.  Christopher Jones' Mayflower was not used for transporting slaves, it was used in the wine trade with France.

In 1920, the 300-year anniversary of the Mayflower's voyage, a large number of books and publications appeared about the Mayflower.  One set of books was authored by J. Rendel Harris.  In them, he attempted to document that the Mayflower had ended up as a barn in England.  This identification has been widely accepted by the "mass media"; I have seen it appear as an answer on Jeopardy, and it even got recent mention in National Geographic.  Nonetheless, anyone who reads J. Rendel Harris' book can clearly see it is entirely wild speculation; the family identifications he uses to try to connect the Mayflower to the Jordans Barn owners has long since been disproved.  So the entire argument rests simply on oral tradition: an oral tradition that is widely disputed as having been created by Harris himself.  Everything was fairly well debunked in a series of articles by J.W. Horrocks appearing throughout the 1922 issues of Mariner's Mirror.  The "Mayflower Barn" may well be the remains of an old ship, but there is not a single shred of evidence to suggest it was the Mayflower.

H.L. Mencken defined Puritanism as"the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy!" Actually, the Puritans welcomed laughter and dressed in bright colors (or, to be precise, the middle and upper classes dressed in bright colors; members of the lower classes were not permitted to indulge themselves -- they dressed in dark clothes). As Carl Degler long ago observed,"The Sabbatarian, antiliquor, and antisex attitudes usually attributed to the Puritans are a nineteenth-century addition to the much more moderate and wholesome view of life's evils held by the early settlers of New England."

This was a myth that apparently began in 1820.  It has no foundation in historical fact.  Five kernels of corn would have no nutritional value whatsoever: yet not a single Pilgrim died from the food shortages of 1621.  There was a shortage of planted crops that year, and hunger was a problem, but their diet was supplemented by enough fish, shellfish, nuts, waterfowl, turkeys, deer, and other native flora and fauna, to keep everyone alive.

This is one of the most prevailing stereotypes, due mainly to the 19th century artwork depicting the Pilgrims.  It couldn't be further from the truth.  The average age of a Mayflower passenger was 32.  Only five of the 104 Mayflower passengers were over 50--and only fourteen Mayflower passengers were over 40.  About 60 passengers were between 20 and 40 years old.  At least 30 passengers were under the age of 17. The oldest Mayflower passenger, James Chilton, was 64.  As for a gender breakdown, there were 51 men, 22 boys, 20 women, and 11 girls.  The oldest Mayflower passenger still alive to partake in the first Thanksgiving was William Brewster, at the age of 54.

The Mayflower that brought the Pilgrims to America was never used again as a passenger ship. From its return in April 1621 until the death of its master Christopher Jones in March 1622, it resumed its former occupation as a trading vessel. After Christopher Jones' death, the ship sat in harbor slowly decaying while it was in probate.  Christopher Jones gave his part of the ship to his widow, Josian, and in 1624 an inventory of the Mayflower was taken.  It is described as being "in ruinis", and valued at £128-08-04 (a ship of its size should have been worth more than £700 pounds).  Ships in this condition were typically broken up and sold for scrap wood--an extremely valuable commodity in England at the time.

The Pilgrims arrived and found a place to settle, called Plymouth on Captain John Smith's map of 1614.  The native Indians called the area Patuxet. The Patuxet tribe had been completely wiped out in a 1618 plague (probably tuberculosis or smallpox).  The only Patuxet survivor was Tisquantum, more commonly called "Squanto" (who had been in England at the time of the plague).  Squanto was accepted into the Plymouth Colony and acted as interpreter and negotiator with Massasoit and the Wampanoag confederation of tribes--the Pilgrims nearest neighbors.  The Wampanoag do not appear to have expressed any objections to the Pilgrims' settlement in the early years, and in fact they paid Plymouth regular visits and offered their assistance in many other ways; Plymouth frequently returned those favors.  Tensions between the Wampanoag and Plymouth Colony did not start to foment until after the deaths of Massasoit and his son Mooanam (alias Wamsutta, also known as "Alexander" to the English) in the 1660s.  The Plymouth Colony did attack a group of Massachusett Indians in 1622 near present-day Boston, following the revelation they were joining together to expel the English at Wessagussett and Plymouth; and they joined with other New England colonies in various conflicts with other Indian groups including the Pequot (1637) and Narragansett (1640s).  The Plymouth Colony did not take up arms against the Wampanoag until the 1675-1676 war known as King Philip's War.

Besides turkey's and black clad Pilgrims, the cornupia is the other major icon frequently displayed as decorations or art to represent the "true meaning" of Thanksgiving. The cornucopia can be traced to pagan Greek mythology quite easily.