Myth 1: It was started by the Pilgrims in Massachusetts in the 17th century.

The Pilgrims had many thanksgivings, as did most cultures in the 17th century, including the Jamestown-area Virginia Indians who gave thanks every day to their god by throwing tobacco into the James River.

In 1619, before the Pilgrims even arrived in the New World, colonists at Berkeley Plantation on the James River held the first official Thanksgiving in what was the only colony England had that year, Virginia. It was declared in writing to be an “annual and perpetual” religious event, as of Dec. 4, 1619.

In 1620, those pesky Pilgrims were, technically, Virginians, albeit “North Virginians.” Virginia was the only legally legitimate colony England had until the Massachusetts Bay colony formed in 1629. Plymouth should more correctly be known as a settlement in North Virginia until then.

Virginia’s boundaries, formed in 1607, started in what today is Kennebunkport, Maine, with the southernmost boundary in the modern South Carolina vicinity, thanks to the Spanish controlling most of the lower Atlantic coast region at that time. The western border was the Pacific Ocean.

Myth 2: It was started to celebrate the harvest.

The Pilgrims’ first thanksgiving on record was in March 1621, giving thanks to God for having survived the winter.

Given the climate, it is safe to say no crops were or are harvested in March in Massachusetts. The Pilgrims’ first thanksgiving was a religious event, not a food festival.

Myth 3: The Pilgrims and the Wampanoag feasted on turkey and pumpkin pie in the fall of 1621.

The only documentary evidence is from Plymouth Gov. Edward Winslow’s journal in which he merely states that the colonists and Wampanoag had a four-day feast.

Scholars suggest venison and wild fowl with dried corn and fruit were the main attractions. The Audubon Society estimates the North American continent had about 10 million wild turkeys in the 17th century, as far north as Maine, so turkey (aka “wild fowl”) could have been on the four-day menu; we just don’t know for sure.

Food was eaten when anyone was hungry, much like modern moms simmering a pot of chili on the stove to feed hungry teenagers and their friends as they pass through the kitchen between school, sports or theater practice, and homework, and then to feed them again later in the evening. Grazing was the norm for both colonists and Native Americans in the 17th century.

Myth 4: America has always celebrated Thanksgiving.

Not consistently until the middle 19th century.

The Berkeley Plantation’s official Thanksgivings were intended to be perpetual, but the Virginia Indian uprising in 1622 resulted in the demise of the Berkeley settlement.

In the 18th century, America’s Founding Fathers would declare days of public thanksgiving and prayer as a spontaneous and singular gesture. Presidents George Washington, John Adams and James Madison all made official proclamations of this kind.

Then, for 50 years, no official proclamations were made in America.

It was President Abraham Lincoln who, during the Civil War, set the “third Thursday in November” as the standard for future Thanksgiving proclamations. It was a time to have “humble penitence” while “offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings.”

Subsequent presidents took the banner and carried it forward.

The morphing of Thanksgiving from respected and revered religious event to a full day of feasting and family fun happened in the 20th century and now it has disappeared from the public forum as modern marketing goes from Halloween to Christmas with barely a breath between.

No one knows quite what to do with Thanksgiving, especially since most of what we think of as “tradition” is bogus. I suggest a return to the basics: humble penitence followed by giving thanks to our Creator for his deliverances and blessings.

No fallacies there, and it eliminates the need to cook.

Karla K. Bruno of Earlysville, is the author of the forthcoming “William and Mary and Tyler, Too,” a biography of Lyon G. Tyler, and a former interpreter at the Historic Jamestowne archaeological digs.