Thanksgiving today is celebrated by getting together with your family and eating a ton of food, but how did it start? We asked Greenwood students what they were taught in Elementary school about the origin of Thanksgiving.

Most students we interviewed said similar stories. Including, Pilgrims came to America and had a feast to celebrate peace. One student said that it was Christopher Columbus who came instead of the Pilgrims.  Another said, ”What Origin?” Only one Student got the story right.

When Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, arrived in Massachusetts, over half of the people died due to starvation and disease.  Eventually Tisquantum, also known as Squanto, taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish, and hunt beaver. Squanto eventually tried to turn the Pilgrims against the Wampanoag tribe and Massasoit, but died after a few failed attempts. The Pilgrims shared a feast with the Wampanoag tribe after their first corn harvest.

Thanksgiving didn’t become an official national holiday until Abraham Lincoln declared it a holiday in 1863 during the Civil War.