The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony are among the English-speaking people's most celebrated cultural heroes.

They are also particularly associated with the annual American Thanksgiving Holiday on the fourth Thursday in November.

Each autumn the well-known perennial images of exotic but easily recognizable Pilgrim costumes (tall black buckled hats, belted coats and tight knee-britches on the men; long dresses, exaggerated white collars and a variety of small caps on the women) appear.

They are combined with pictures of Native Americans and the New England harvest such as Indian corn, pumpkins and turkeys by the media.

It is generally understood that these people have something to do with the initial colonization of North America as well as Thanksgiving.

But who were the Pilgrims and why are they symbolic of not only a harvest holiday but also our national origins as well?

The Pilgrim story begins in England. A congregation of religious dissidents in Nottinghamshire separated from the king's church and established a church of their own in 1606. Persecuted by government authorities, the congregation fled to the city of Leiden in Holland.

There they found toleration to worship as they chose, but poor economic conditions and cultural competition caused them much hardship. They decided to emigrate to the English colonies in North America, then known collectively as "Virginia."

After receiving financial backing from a consortium of London merchants, almost 50 members of the Leiden group, accompanied by a similar number of other English emigrants, started across the Atlantic on September 6, 1620, aboard a ship called the Mayflower.

The Mayflower arrived at Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts on November 9, 1620, after a 66-day voyage.

The Pilgrims chose to remain in New England as it was too late in the season to go on to the northern part of Virginia where they had permission to settle. They signed an agreement on November 11 (now known as the "Mayflower Compact") to guarantee cooperation within their unchartered community. On December 11, 1620 (O.S.), an exploring party found the site of the future town of Plymouth.

This is celebrated in legend as the landing on Plymouth Rock, a solitary boulder at the foot of the hill on which Plymouth is built. Construction of the new settlement began on Christmas Day, 1620.

Winter weather and a poor diet caused half of the little company to sicken and die that winter.

In the spring of 1621, the survivors planted their crops and made friendly contact with the neighboring Wampanoag Indians. Squanto taught the colonists how to plant corn and a treaty of peace was signed between the sachem Massasoit and Plymouth's first governor, John Carver, which lasted 50 years.

In the early autumn, the colonists first harvest proved successful. A celebration was held that lasted for three days and was attended by Massasoit and 90 of his men, at which everyone feasted on turkeys, venison and other local foods.

It was this celebration, which was rediscovered in the early 19th century and inaccurately identified as the "first New England Thanksgiving", that brought about the Pilgrims' association with the modern holiday.

Before that time the Pilgrims had been chiefly celebrated as the first English colonists in New England, and by implication, in North America. The first actual permanent English settlement was established at Jamestown in Virginia in 1607, but the Pilgrim story, with the power of the New England literary establishment behind it, overshadowed that fact.

The Virginian adventurers were felt to lack the moral fiber and sturdy virtues of the Plymouth families, who better represented the values of the American nation.

The Plymouth colonists were elevated at the time of the American Revolution from simple local forebears to be among the founding fathers of the entire country.

There was a need for symbolic support for the independence of the United States, and the Pilgrims became the leading characters in the creation story of the new nation.

It was then that the Plymouth group received the name "The Pilgrims".

They became the image of aggregate American virtue, symbolizing the values of Christian faith, fortitude, the family and American morality, and eventually acquired the Thanksgiving holiday as their own.

From then on, later arrivals made pilgrimages of their own from across the country and around the world to see where it all began-where the Pilgrims first set foot in their new land.