By the time the “sweet pudding of native corn” makes its appearance, delivered by period-costumed servers in brightly colored, flowing wool skirts and breeches, there could be little doubt as to how a 17th-century Pilgrim banquet, commonly known as a “groaning board,” got its name.

Preceding it was a sallet (salad), mussels, sauc’d turkey, and a pottage of cabbage, leeks, and onions. Still to come are the stewed pompion (pumpkin), a chine of pork, fricassee of fish, cheesecake, a charger of Holland cheese, and fruit, plus the evening’s entertainment – hymns, communal rounds, and jovial wordplay.

By the sounds of satiation heard in the banquet hall, this was obviously more food than the 200 guests – including me, my wife, and our 5-year-old twin daughters – could handle at the “1627 Dine With the Pilgrims” feast. It’s a popular seasonal addition to the menu of attractions at Plimoth (the original spelling) Plantation, the award-winning re-created Pilgrim village three miles south of here.

It is also more of a hands-on experience than we expected, as forks were not used back then. Nor were napkins, with the accepted practice being to wipe your fingers on the tablecloth (which our daughters take to quite easily).
Most important, the feast is an unforgettable object lesson in what the first Thanksgiving was really like.

What happened here in the fall of 1621 was a traditional English harvest celebration, not a true “thanksgiving,” which for the Pilgrims was a day of prayer and fasting in appreciation of some divine deliverance, such as the end of a drought. As such, it lasted three or four days, involved spirited (primarily beer and brandy) merrymaking, athletic competitions (especially “stool ball,” a forerunner of cricket), and almost certainly took place in mid-October, not late November.

In addition, the native Wampanoags – who outnumbered the Pilgrims nearly 3 to 1 – weren’t guests so much as cohosts, supplying the main course of deer. (It is widely assumed that wild turkey, plentiful in New England, also was served.)

And perhaps most significant, there was never any intention of doing it all again the next year.