Tradition says the Pilgrims celebrated the first
in
. The pilgrims were religious dissidents who fled oppression in
. First, they went to the
, then left to establish a colony in
. They arrived at what later became known as Plymouth, Massachussets. Their
across the Atlantic Ocean and their first months were difficult. About one hundred pilgrims arrived just as autumn was turning to winter, about half of them died during the cold months that followed.
As the story goes, when
came the pilgrims planted
crops with the help of an American
named Squanto. By the end of
, there was a good
harvest of
and
barley. There was
enough food to
last through the
.
The pilgrims held a
of thanks for their harvest. A nearby Indian tribe, the Wampanoag
took part and the
lasted three days.