Let's define who we're talking about. The founding fathers are those men who led the revolution against Great Britain and formed a new government in the late 1770's and 1780's. You know, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Jay, Franklin, Henry, etc.
The Pilgrims were members of a small group of religious dissenters (Brownists) who were recruited by the Plymouth Company as settlers. Clearly they wanted to serve God in their own way, though they had that right in Holland. But in Holland they feared their children and grandchildren would become Dutch, a very realistic probability. They came over on the Mayflower in 1620 if I remember correctly. They recorded ONE and only one post-harvest Thanksgiving after their first harvest, a one time event for a very special occasion. The Pilgrims didn't even celebrate Christmas - they weren't about to establish a new annual holiday of their own making. Plymouth Colony was eventually annexed against it's will by Massachusetts Bay Colony (i.e. the Puritans, a different and larger group of religious dissenters). |
