THE SOUNDVIEW BULLETIN! There will be no school 11/27 – 11/29 as we take a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving. As we gather with loved ones and enjoy a delicious meal, let’s remember how grateful we are for this opportunity to celebrate together. In the United States, Thanksgiving dates all the way back to the th 16 ​ century, with the first documented thanksgiving services ​ being conducted by Spanish and French explorers in the late 1500’s. Thanksgiving services were routinely held by English settlers in the early 1600’s as well. The event most commonly known as the “First Thanksgiving,” however, was held by the Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. The Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving feast was prepared by just four women – the only women to have survived the settlers’ first winter, during which half of the Pilgrims died. The three-day celebration took place after their first harvest, made possible with help from the local native peoples, especially the Abenaki, Wampanoag, and the last surviving member of the Patuxet people, a man named Tisquantum. Tisquantum, having learned English when he was kidnapped and taken to Europe from 1614–1619, worked as a translator and diplomat in aid of the Pilgrims, providing the resources they needed to learn to survive in the New World. Americans continued to hold days of thanksgiving throughout the years, until President Abraham Lincoln established a national Thanksgiving Day in 1863. President Lincoln is believed to have been persuaded largely by the efforts of Sarah Josepha Hale, a writer and editor (and author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”) who campaigned for 17 years to have Thanksgiving declared a national holiday. Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November each year with modern traditions that include parades, football games, and of course, turkey! .