Nov 23, 2017
The Pilgrims Thanksgiving Holiday was inspired by events in the middle ages and location of their cultural origins. The 3 October Festival in the Netherlands commemorates the anniversary of the 1573–1574 Siege of Leiden, during the Eighty Years' War, when the Spanish Army attempted to capture the city. The first siege was from October 1573 to March by the Spanish returned in May 1574 for the second siege. The city had neglected, in the interim, to pull down the Spanish fortifications and to lay in provisions, though they were warned; with the citizens in despair, the mayor offered his own body for food in an attempt to keep morale up. Provisions had run out after two months, and the Spanish were not ousted until the night of 2/3 October 1574; by that time thousands of Leidenaren had starved. The army of Watergeuzen ("Sea Beggars") led by William the Silent, Prince of Orange, entered the next morning and fed the citizens herring and white bread (haring en wittebrood), and Hutspot later that day.