“Doubtless there was a Thanksgiving service that happened at Berkeley in 1619,” said Plimoth Plantation chief historian Richard Pickering, acknowledging that the Pilgrim Thanksgiving was not until 1621. “They have perpetuated what we started.”The Berkeley Thanksgiving has faded in and out of the national consciousness. Perhaps the high mark was in 1963, when President John F. Kennedy made indirect mention in his annual Thanksgiving proclamation, at the request of a Virginia state senator. The story of the Plymouth Thanksgiving also disappeared for a time, historian Pickering said. “There was no other real benchmark for this kind of commemoration,” said Brian Logan, spokesman for Plymouth 400, who is diplomatic about the whole Berkeley Thanksgiving thing.

Source: Washington Post November 28, 2019 00:11 UTC