Thanksgiving is the official start to the holiday season in america, an occasion of year when families and friends come together to celebrate their American heritage, not forgetting great food and soccer.

Most likely, it is some low-stress merriment, free of the ensuing pressure of shopping lists for everyone you ever met in your lifetime.

Alternatively, togetherness, a football game outside or watched on television, and a rich meal that is l-Tryptophan-laden all that’s required to make this iconic American holiday profitable.

Thanksgiving had been proclaimed a holiday that is federal then-President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to honor the Pilgrims’ first harvest in the New World back 1621.

Ever since then, Americans have celebrated the arrival regarding the early settlers with a feast of our own, but some might be surprised to know that the rather dour Pilgrims occasionally spread a few games of chance by themselves.

Wait, Pilgrims Gambled?

English dissenters were staunchly linked to their religious beliefs, and that fact became one of the leading good reasons for their emigration throughout the Atlantic Ocean, as they opposed King James I’s dictated theology.

These people were Quakers, Puritans, Brownists, and over a dozen more sects that are religious. One thing they all shared was a belief that the Church of England and the Catholic Church (at the same time two separate entities for 100 years, since Henry VIII broke off with all the papacy over his many marriages back the 16th century) had extended their philosophies beyond the teachings of their sacred text, the Bible.

Not all the Mayflower’s passengers were motivated by religion. In reality, about half were not committed to any religion in specific at all, according to History.com, which we are certain is used at Harvard to instruct every thing.

Pilgrims spent their days building homes and infrastructure, harvesting food, and creating a sense of community in anticipation of better futures in the future. In their spare time, they played a variety of sports and games including hubbub, a game of chance they acquired through the Onondaga Native Americans.

Hubbub was a dice game where players shook a dish containing five two-sided pieces, often made of bone, which were colored black using one side and white or yellow in the other. The item was to successfully turn the die to the side that is same with much betting and many variations of the game played over the years.

It was the game that is first of the Pilgrims enjoyed, but certainly not the final.

Charles in Charge

When Charles II came back the English monarchy to the throne in 1660, he brought with him a good amount of personal pleasures that spread to the newly formed colonies.

In addition to his nefarious womanizing, (the king having had no legitimate children, but admitting to fathering at minimum 12 with his different mistresses), Charles made gambling main-stream in England.

‘At their court, games of chance became a focus of life,’ historian Ed Crews composed in 2008. ‘ The madness not only spread to England’s every corner but roared, like a gale, across the Atlantic … Colonists, like their cousins in Europe, began betting on everything and anything.’

Spiritual leaders’ disdain for gambling had little influence on people who wished to relax and play. The increase regarding the tobacco trade, a common crop on the Eastern seaboard regarding the colonies, also placed more disposable income into the pockets of residents.

Gambling became rampant in Colonial America from the Carolinas to New England. They bet on activities, card games, cribbage, and even cock and dog fights.

‘This nation had been created by people who left what was home and came over here,’ historian David Schwartz told Crews. ‘Americans are more prone to take risks.’

So on this Thanksgiving, commemorate America’s earliest residents by stuffing that person, watching some sports, and dealing your favorite card game. And raise a glass to the Pilgrims, because, who knew?