Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is coming up and there's plenty to do before to get ready. There's the food, the decorations, the food, the football, the food...and was food mentioned already? Whether you're going the All-American turkey and corn route, or the mighty turducken, or even the tofurkey, you're bound to enter into a food coma.

But amid the harvest bounty celebration, don't forget it's also history. It's unlikely that anyone has somehow never heard of the Pilgrims and their sharing of their harvest with the Native Americans who helped them.

But did you know that there were other celebrations of a 'Thanksgiving' in North America before the Pilgrims arrived in the Mayflower? Maine, Florida, Texas, and Virginia also claim that their state held the first 'Thanksgiving'. Such celebrations, often a religious observance, were observed by many colonists, including the Spanish along with the English.

But, we all have come to associate Thanksgiving with the 1621 celebration held by the Pilgrims and Wampanoag. Click here to learn more about that Thanksgiving.

The Waterford/Halfmoon area is another spot that has a long history of people being thankful, especially for the water. Henry Hudson sailed up as far as this point when he made his 1609 voyage, and its first settlers were the Dutch who traded fur and other goods with the Mahican tribe as early as the 1630s.

It may be a little later than the Pilgrims' Thanksgiving, but Waterford likely had its own share of Thanksgiving celebrations long before the national holiday was made official as the fourth Thursday in November in 1941.

So what makes your Thanksgiving, your Thanksgiving?

Curious to know more about this earlier history of Waterford? Stop by the museum and see our permanent exhibit!

We also have a selection in our gift shop to get in the Thanksgiving mood: Coloring Books (clearly not just for children) and Sticker Books make for great gifts, along with so many other goodies here at the museum.