
Mayflower Day is the day set aside to commemorate the history of the journey that saw travelers from England who were seeking refuge, sail through the ocean to create a new colony in the ‘Promised Land’, which is the territory of the modern-day United States.
Although the ship reached and eventually docked at present-day Cape Cod, Massachusetts, its original destination was a region in and around the present-day territory of the U.S. state of Virginia. According to historical accounts, rough sea conditions and storms prevented it from reaching its final destination in Virginia and subsequently docked at an area around the present-day Hudson River in what is now New York state.
The original 102 travelers on the Mayflower were led by a group of English merchants known as the London Adventurers, one of whose journals most of the written account of the 66-day journey was obtained from. Mayflower Day celebration serves as a remembrance of the history, travelers, and the vessel that has now become an important part of the creation of the modern-day United States.
One of the travelers on the Mayflower ship, William Bradford is considered to have helped establish the traditions of self-government that would later set the pattern for national political development in years to come with his introduction of franchise and town meetings as the 30-year governor of the Plymouth colony where the travelers of Mayflower settled and is also one of thirteen colonies that formed the present United States.