Pilgrim Jokes

If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?
Pilgrims!

• Idyllic Pilgrims
• Mary Chilton Sets Foot
  on America
• Christopher Columbus
• The First Thanksgiving
• Thankful Pilgrims
• Pilgrim Jokes

Idyllic Pilgrims

This is an early engraving depicting the Pilgrims landing; it’s based on
1799 engraving by Samuel Hall.

While it represents an idyllic version of the landing this Thanksgiving
picture has charm.

However, historian criticise the picture on the ground that the costume
is more 1800s than 1620.  Also, according to contemporary journals the
Pilgrims did not meet Indians until several week after the initial landing.

Mary Chilton Sets Foot on
America

According to legend it was Mary Chilton who first stepped ashore from the
Mayflower at Plymouth Rock.

Mary was only 15 in 1620, unlike many including her parents, Mary
survived the first winter, and later married John Winslow in 1624.

The First Thanksgiving

Below is Jennie Brownscombe’s interpretation of the Pilgrim Fathers
celebrating the First Thanksgiving.
This picture has become a symbol of Thanksgiving and was printed in Life
magazine

Thankful Pilgrims

Looking back approaching 400 years one can see why those first Pilgrims
had a lot to be thankful for.  Their boat, the Mayflower, made it
across the Atlantic Ocean.  We can only ponder how many perished in
similar boats before their success.  And indeed we can think of all
those boats which have been lost with all hands since.  The Pilgrims
who landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620 can be grateful that Iroquois Native
Americans were not more numerous and more belligerent.

The
Pilgrims who sailed on the Mayflower were members of the English Separatist
Church (a Puritan sect).  They fled from persecution in England and took
the opportunity of a better life in America.  Puritans negotiated with a
London stock company to finance the pilgrimage to America.  However, 2/3 of
those aboard the Mayflower were not Separatists, they just went along for the
adventure and the opportunity.

That first winter on 1620 was severe and by the fall of 1621 almost half of the
original 102 settlers had died of hardship.  However, the vegetables were new to the Pilgrims and they needed help from the Iroquois Indians to grow crops such as maize and pumpkins.  Thanks to
the skill of native Indians like Squanto, and good fortune, the harvest of 1621 was bountiful.

Governor William Bradford famously sent ‘four men fowling’. They returned with deer, wild ducks
and geese. While they probably did not have turkey as we know it, the Pilgrims coined the word ‘turkey’
as a generic term for any wild fowl. The resulting feast was more like an English harvest festival than a
true Thanksgiving observance.

Pilgrim Jokes

Now where is that Turkey?

Two pilgrims go out hunting

One hunter has two blunderbusses.

The second pilgrim asks, ‘Why do you have two blunderbusses?’

The first pilgrim explains, ‘I usually miss the first time I shoot. By
taking two I can shoot again.’

The second pilgrim thinks for a while and then says, ‘Why not just take
the second one, and only shoot once?’

Pilgrims Friend or Foe?

Cartoon by Clay Jones

Footnote:
Please send us your funny pilgrim jokes.