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Page Contents:
Thanksgiving Tidbits
Thanksgiving Overview
The History of Thanksgiving
Mayflower Myths
Thanksgiving Day Myths
How FDR Changed Thanksgiving
Turkey Tidbits
Thanksgiving Tidbits
Jingle Bells," a popular Christmas
song, was actually written for Thanksgiving. The song was composed in 1857, by James Pierpont, and was originally called "One
Horse Open Sleigh."
Small animals like bats and shrews consume up to one and one-half
times their body weight in food every day. For an adult male, this would be like eating 1,000 quarter-pound cheeseburgers
a day, every day; or about 50 Thanksgiving dinners a day.
WHEN DID THANKSGIVING BECOME A NATIONAL HOLIDAY IN THE
UNITED STATES?
President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving
a national holiday in 1863, setting the date as the last Thursday of November, following an intense campaign by Sarah Josepha
Hale, editor of a ladies’ magazine. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the date up one week, supposedly
to stimulate the Depression economy. Congress then passed a law establishing the fourth Thursday in November as the official
holiday.
Is Thanksgiving strictly an American
holiday?
Not exactly -- While we generally think of Thanksgiving as a uniquely American holiday, but there
is actually a long tradition of harvest-time celebrations and thanksgiving celebrations. Every autumn, the ancient Greeks
enjoyed a three-day festival to honor Demeter, the goddess of corn and grains. The Romans had a similar celebration in which
they honored Ceres, the goddess of corn (the word "cereal" is derived from Ceres). The Roman celebration included music, parades,
games, sports and a thanksgiving feast, much like modern Thanksgiving. The ancient Chinese held a harvest festival called
Chung Ch'ui to celebrate the full moon. And in the British Isles, the major Thanksgiving forerunner was a harvest festival
called Lammas Day, named for for the Old English words for loaf and mass.
When did Thanksgiving become a holiday?
In
1817, New York state officially adopted a yearly Thanksgiving day, and some other states followed suit. Most celebrated the
day in November, and a few observed it in December. In the mid 1800s, a magazine editor named Sarah Josepha Hale mounted a
campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln did just that, proclaiming that Thanksgiving
would be the last day in November. After the Civil War, Congress made Thanksgiving a national holiday. Initially, many Southerners
saw this as the Northerners forcing their particular traditions on the whole country. But eventually, the holiday caught on
everywhere.
Do Native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving?
While
many view the first Thanksgiving as an example of the possibility of great respect and cooperation between two different cultures,
others see it as a symbol of the colonists' persecution of the Native Americans. Sadly, the friendly spirit of the first Thanksgiving
was one small exception in a long history of bloodshed between native tribes and European settlers. Today, many Americans
reflect on this aspect of the nation's history. In 1970, some Native Americans have began observing a Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving
day, to remember the violence and discrimination suffered by their ancestors. The Day of Mourning is observed by gathering
at the top of "Coles Hill," which overlooks Plymouth Rock.
Where does the cornucopia come from?
One
of the most prominent Thanksgiving symbols, the cornucopia, actually dates back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. The term
(generally describing a horn-shaped basket filled with fruit, flowers and other goodies) comes from the Latin cornu copiae,
literally "horn of plenty." In Greek mythology, the cornucopia is a severed goat's horn, enchanted by Zeus to produce a never-ending
supply of whatever the owner desires.
Thanksgiving Overview
Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims seem to go together, just like Christmas
and Santa Claus--but the truth is, the Pilgrims never held an autumnal Thanksgiving feast. Before you cancel the turkey, take
a look at the origin of that particular myth. In some ways, the truth is even more intriguing.
The Pilgrims did have
a feast in 1621, after their first harvest, and it is this feast which people often refer to as "The First Thanksgiving".
This feast was never repeated, though, so it can't be called the beginning of a tradition, nor was it termed by the colonists
or "Pilgrims" a Thanksgiving Feast. In fact, to these devoutly religious people, a day of thanksgiving was a day of prayer
and fasting, and would have been held any time that they felt an extra day of thanks was called for.
Nevertheless,
the 1621 feast has become a model that we think of for our own Thanksgiving celebration and we do know something of the truth
about it.
We can assume, for example, that the harvest feast was eaten outside
based on the fact that the Colonists didn't have a building large enough to accommodate all the people who came. Native People
were definately among the invited guests, and it's possible. even probable, that turkey (roasted but not stuffed) and pumpkin
in some form, found their way to the table. And it gets better. This is the way the feast was described in a first-hand account
presumably by a leader of the colony, Edward Winslow, as it appears in Mourt's Relation:
"Our harvest being gotten
in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered
the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost
a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, Many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among
the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went
out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others.
And although it be not always so plentiful as it was this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far
from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."
From this we know that the feast went on for three days,
included ninety "Indians", and food was plentiful. In addition, to the vensison provided by the Indians, there was enough
wild fowl to supply the village for a week. The fowl would have included ducks, geese, turkeys and even swans.
Much of the information we have about the feast, and this period in the
lives of these people, is the result of research conducted by the staff at Plimoth Plantation, the living museum in Plymouth,
Massachusetts, that re-creates the lives of the Pilgrims with Mayflower II, the 1627 Pilgrim Village, and a native homesite.
From this research we know about the foods and recipes that would have been available to them, and from two first
hand accounts(the second was written by William Bradford,
Governor of the colony for 33 years, and can be read in Of Plymouth
Plantation 1620-1647), we have a good idea of how the village looked, what the colonists wore, how they spoke, what animals
they owned and how they lived.
We even know what games they played, what their views may have been on everything from
their new home to religion and politics. So this is what we know about the first Thanksgiving.
Copyright 2004 by PENN LLC. All rights reserved. Go ahead and forward
this, in its entirety, to others.
The History of Thanksgiving
In 1621 the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians
shared an autumn harvest feast which is now known as the first Thanksgiving. While cooking methods and table etiquette have
changed as the holiday has evolved, the meal is still consumed today with the same spirit of celebration and overindulgence.
What Was Actually on the Menu?
What foods topped the table at the first harvest feast? Historians aren't completely certain about the full bounty, but
it's safe to say the pilgrims weren't gobbling up pumpkin pie or playing with their mashed potatoes. Following is a list of
the foods that were available to the colonists at the time of the 1621 feast. However, the only two items that historians
know for sure were on the menu are venison and wild fowl, which are mentioned in primary sources.
Foods That May Have Been on the Menu
SEAFOOD: Cod, Eel, Clams,
Lobster
WILD FOWL: Wild Turkey, Goose,
Duck, Crane, Swan, Partridge, Eagles
MEAT: Venison, Seal
GRAIN: Wheat Flour, Indian
Corn
VEGETABLES: Pumpkin, Peas,
Beans, Onions, Lettuce, Radishes, Carrots
FRUIT: Plums, Grapes
NUTS: Walnuts, Chestnuts,
Acorns
HERBS and SEASONINGS: Olive
Oil, Liverwort, Leeks, Dried Currants, Parsnips
What Wasn’t on the Menu
Surprisingly, the following foods, all considered staples of the modern Thanksgiving meal, didn't appear on the pilgrims'
first feast table:
HAM : There is no evidence
that the colonists had butchered a pig by this time, though they had brought pigs with them from England.
SWEET POTATOES/POTATOES: These
were not common.
CORN ON THE COB: Corn was
kept dried out at this time of year.
CRANBERRY SAUCE: The colonists
had cranberries but no sugar at this time.
PUMPKIN PIE: It's not a recipe
that exists at this point, though the pilgrims had recipes for stewed pumpkin.
CHICKEN/EGGS: We know that
the colonists brought hens with them from England, but it's unknown how many they had left at this point or whether the hens
were still laying.
MILK: No cows had been aboard
the Mayflower, though it's possible that the colonists used goat milk to make cheese.
Source: Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation
Seventeenth Century Table Manners
· The pilgrims
didn't use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. They wiped their hands on large cloth napkins, which they
also used to pick up hot morsels of food.
· Salt would
have been on the table at the harvest feast, and people would have sprinkled it on their food. Pepper, however, was something
that they used for cooking but wasn't available on the table.
· In the seventeenth
century, a person's social standing determined what he or she ate. The best food was placed next to the most important people.
People didn't tend to sample everything that was on the table (as we do today), they just ate what was closest to them.
· Serving
in the seventeenth century was very different from serving today. People weren't served their meals individually. Foods were
served onto the table and then people took the food from the table and ate it. All the servers had to do was move the food
from the place where it was cooked onto the table.
· Pilgrims
didn't eat in courses as we do today. All of the different types of foods were placed on the table at the same time and people
ate in any order they chose. Sometimes there were two courses, but each of them would contain both meat dishes, puddings,
and sweets.
More Meat, Less Vegetables
· Our modern
Thanksgiving repast is centered around the turkey, but that certainly wasn't the case at the pilgrims' feasts. Their meals
included many different meats. Vegetable dishes, one of the main components of our modern celebration, didn't really play
a large part in the feast mentality of the seventeenth century. Depending on the time of year, many vegetables weren't available
to the colonists.
· The pilgrims
probably didn't have pies or anything sweet at the harvest feast. They had brought some sugar with them on the Mayflower
but by the time of the feast, the supply had dwindled. Also, they didn't have an oven so pies and cakes and breads were not
possible at all.
· The food
that was eaten at the harvest feast would have seemed fatty by 1990's standards, but it was probably more healthy for the
pilgrims than it would be for people today. The colonists were more active and needed more protein. Heart attack was the least
of their worries. They were more concerned about the plague and pox.
Surprisingly Spicy Cooking
· People
tend to think of English food at bland, but, in fact, the pilgrims used many spices, including cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper,
and dried fruit, in sauces for meats.
· In the seventeenth
century, cooks did not use proportions or talk about teaspoons and tablespoons. Instead, they just improvised.
· The best
way to cook things in the seventeenth century was to roast them. Among the pilgrims, someone was assigned to sit for hours
at a time and turn the spit to make sure the meat was evenly done.
· Since the
pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians had no refrigeration in the seventeenth century, they tended to dry a lot of their foods to
preserve them. They dried Indian corn, hams, fish, and herbs.
Dinner for Breakfast: Pilgrim Meals
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The biggest meal of the day for the colonists was eaten at noon and it was called
noonmeat or dinner. The housewives would spend part of their morning cooking that meal. Supper was a smaller meal that they
had at the end of the day. Breakfast tended to be leftovers from the previous day's noonmeat. In a pilgrim household, the adults sat down to eat and the children and servants
waited on them. The foods that the colonists and Wampanoag Indians ate were very similar,
but their eating patterns were different. While the colonists had set eating patterns - breakfast, dinner, and supper - the
Wampanoags tended to eat when they were hungry and to have pots cooking throughout the day. |
Source: Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation
All
Photos Courtesy of Plimouth Plantation, Inc., Plymouth, MA. USA
Mayflower Myths
"The reason that we have so many myths associated
with Thanksgiving is that it is an invented tradition. It doesn't originate in any one event. It is based on the New England
puritan Thanksgiving, which is a religious Thanksgiving, and the traditional harvest celebrations of England and New England
and maybe other ideas like commemorating the pilgrims. All of these have been gathered together and transformed into something
different from the original parts."
-
James W. Baker, Senior Historian at Plimoth Plantation
MYTH: The first Thanksgiving was in 1621 and the pilgrims celebrated it every
year thereafter.
FACT: The first feast wasn't
repeated, so it wasn't the beginning of a tradition. In fact, the colonists didn't even call the day Thanksgiving. To them,
a thanksgiving was a religious holiday in which they would go to church and thank god for a specific event, such as the winning
of a battle. On such a religious day, the types of recreational activities that the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians participated
in during the 1621 harvest feast--dancing, singing secular songs, playing games--wouldn't have been allowed. The feast was
a secular celebration, so it never would have been considered a thanksgiving in the pilgrims minds.
MYTH: The original Thanksgiving feast took place on the fourth
Thursday of November.
FACT: The original feast in
1621 occurred sometime between September 21 and November 11. Unlike our modern holiday, it was three days long. The event
was based on English harvest festivals, which traditionally occurred around the 29th of September. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
set the date for Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941). Abraham Lincoln had
previously designated it as the last Thursday in November, which may have correlated it with the November 21, 1621, anchoring
of the Mayflower at Cape Cod.
MYTH: The pilgrims wore only black and white clothing. They had buckles on their
hats, garments, and shoes.
FACT: Buckles did not come
into fashion until later in the seventeenth century and black and white were commonly worn only on Sunday and formal occasions.
Women typically dressed in red, earthy green, brown, blue, violet, and gray, while men wore clothing in white, beige, black,
earthy green, and brown.
MYTH: The pilgrims brought furniture with them on the Mayflower.
FACT: The only furniture that
the pilgrims brought on the Mayflower was chests and boxes. They constructed wooden furniture once they settled in
Plymouth.
MYTH: The pilgrims wore only black and white clothing. They had buckles on their
hats, garments, and shoes.
FACT: Buckles did not come
into fashion until later in the seventeenth century and black and white were commonly worn only on Sunday and formal occasions.
Women typically dressed in red, earthy green, brown, blue, violet, and gray, while men wore clothing in white, beige, black,
earthy green, and brown.
MYTH: The pilgrims brought furniture with them on the Mayflower.
FACT: The only furniture that
the pilgrims brought on the Mayflower was chests and boxes. They constructed wooden furniture once they settled in
Plymouth.
Thanksgiving
Day Myths
By Timothy Walch
Mr. Walch is the director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
in West Branch, Iowa, and a writer for the History News Network.
Thanksgiving dinner: never has the history of a meal been so obscured by
myth. Every year on the fourth Thursday in November, Americans sit down to eat with family and friends. Some gather to give
thanks for all that they have received over the previous year; others get together just to enjoy turkey and football. We all
celebrate Thanksgiving in our own ways.
So what do most Americans believe happened on that first Thanksgiving Day?
Most still cling to what they learned in elementary school. The Pilgrims sat down with Indians for a big meal of turkey, cornbread,
cranberries and pumpkin pie. The Pilgrims dressed in black, and the Indians wore feathers and colorful beads. In fact, many
Americans today still recall if they were "pilgrims" or "Indians" in their school pageants.
It's a charming story, but it's a myth. To be sure, it's a powerful one
-- one that will be repeated many times this November. The fact that it's so pervasive is evidence that American myths have
long lives.
So what are the facts of that first Thanksgiving? In fact, the Pilgrims
of the Plymouth Colony in today's Massachusetts did share a meal with the Wampanoag Indians in the autumn of 1621, but the
rest of the details are uncertain. The only documentary evidence of the event comes from the journal of Plymouth Colony's
governor, Edward Winslow, who noted simply that the colonists met with Chief Massasoit and 90 of his men for a feast that
lasted four days. No one worried about cholesterol or obesity in 1621!
Though they don't have much evidence, historians and archaeologists do
have an educated hypothesis of what the Pilgrims ate, how they ate, when they ate and what they wore at that first Thanksgiving
meal. The historical facts are not at all like the scene usually painted in elementary school.
Start with the menu. It's not likely that the Pilgrims and the Indians
consumed any bread dressing, mashed potatoes or pumpkin pie. In fact, it is not likely that they ate any roast turkey either.
The only items listed in Winslow's journal were "venison and wild fowl," and it is likely that dried corn and fruit filled
out the bill of fare. In colonial times, a person ate what was available, when it was available. No one back then saved room
for pumpkin pie.
Another myth has to do with how the meal was served. The Pilgrims and the
Indians did not, as the myth has it, sit down at tables, bless their food or pass the serving dishes. It's more likely that
food was set out on every available flat surface: tables, boxes, benches, and tree stumps. The meal was consumed without ceremony
over three days, whenever someone was hungry.
No one used plates or eating utensils. Although both the colonists and
the Indians occasionally used cloths or napkins if the food was hot, they usually ate with their hands. And not everyone ate
everything that was served. Most diners ate what they liked or whatever dish was closest to them.
Finally, it's important to dispel one last Thanksgiving myth -- that the
Pilgrims dressed in black and white clothing, wore pointed hats and starched bonnets and favored buckles on their shoes. It's
true that they dressed in black on Sundays; but on most days, including the first Thanksgiving, they dressed in white, beige,
black, green and brown. And it's likely that the Indians were fully clothed to ward off the chill of autumn in New England.
Who would wear only a loincloth in Massachusetts in November?
So it's a good thing that Americans today are not tested on the history
of that first Thanksgiving, because few of us would earn a passing grade. It seems that the historical evidence of Thanksgiving
is not as compelling as the myths that cloud our memories. It's too bad that childhood images of Pilgrims and Indians aren't
based on historical facts.
And yet there's a legacy about this holiday that threads its way from past
to the present and defies both myth and historical evidence. That legacy is generosity. To be sure, Americans today may not
be as religious as the Pilgrims, but most Americans do share their plenty with their family and friends on this special day.
It's a holiday that brings all Americans, no matter their creed or disposition, together. And that's something worthy of our
thanks.
This piece was distributed for non-exclusive use by the History News Network,
an informal syndicate of professional historians who seek to improve the public's understanding of current events by setting
these events in their historical contexts. The article may be republished as long as both the author and the History News
Service are clearly credited.
How FDR Changed Thanksgiving
by Jennifer Rosenberg
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a lot to think about in 1939.
The world had been suffering from the Great Depression for a decade and the Second World War had just erupted in Europe. On
top of that, the U.S. economy continued to look bleak. So when U.S. retailers begged him to move Thanksgiving up a week to
increase the shopping days before Christmas, he agreed. He probably considered it a small change; however, when FDR issued
his Thanksgiving Proclamation with the new date, there was an uproar throughout the country.
Though the current holiday of Thanksgiving was based on the 1621 feast,
it did not immediately become an annual celebration or holiday. Sporadic days of Thanksgiving followed, usually declared locally
to give thanks for a specific event such as the end of a drought, victory in a specific battle, or after a harvest.
It wasn't until October 1777 that all 13 colonies celebrated a day of
Thanksgiving. The very first national day of Thanksgiving was held in 1789, when President George Washington proclaimed Thursday,
November 26 to be "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer," to especially give thanks for the opportunity to form a new nation
and the establishment of a new constitution.
Yet even after a national day of Thanksgiving was declared in 1789, Thanksgiving
was not an annual celebration.
On October 3, 1863, Lincoln issued a "Thanksgiving Proclamation" that
declared the last Thursday in November (based on Washington's date) to be a day of "thanksgiving and praise." For the first
time, Thanksgiving became a national, annual holiday with a specific date.
For 75 years after Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation, succeeding
presidents honored the tradition and annually issued their own Thanksgiving Proclamation, declaring the last Thursday in November
as the day of Thanksgiving.
However, in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not. In 1939, the
last Thursday of November was going to be November 30. Retailers complained to FDR that this only left 24 shopping days to
Christmas and begged him to push Thanksgiving just one week earlier. It was determined that most people do their Christmas
shopping after Thanksgiving and retailers hoped that with an extra week of shopping, people would buy more.
So when FDR announced his Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1939, he declared
the date of Thanksgiving to be Thursday, November 23, the second-to-last Thursday of the month.
The new date for Thanksgiving caused a lot of confusion. Calendars were
now incorrect. Schools who had planned vacations and tests now had to reschedule. Thanksgiving had been a big day for football
games, as it is today, so the game schedule had to be examined.
Political opponents of FDR and many others questioned the president's
right to change the holiday and stressed the breaking of precedent and disregard for tradition. Many believed that changing
a cherished holiday just to appease businesses was not a sufficient reason for change. Atlantic City's mayor derogatorily
called November 23 as "Franksgiving."
Before 1939, the president annually announced his Thanksgiving Proclamation
and then governors followed the president in officially proclaiming the same day as Thanksgiving for their state. In 1939,
many governors did not agree with FDR's decision to change the date and refused to follow him. The country became split on
which Thanksgiving they should observe.
Twenty-three states followed FDR's change and declared Thanksgiving to
be November 23. Twenty-three other states disagreed with FDR and kept the traditional date for Thanksgiving, November 30.
Two states, Colorado and Texas, decided to honor both dates.
This idea of two Thanksgiving days split some families, because not everyone
had the same day off work.
Though the confusion caused many frustrations across the country, the
question remained as to whether the extended holiday shopping season caused people to spend more, thus helping the economy.
The answer was no. Businesses reported that the spending was approximately
the same, but the distribution of the shopping was changed. For those states who celebrated the earlier Thanksgiving date,
the shopping was evenly distributed throughout the season. For those states that kept the traditional date, businesses experienced
a bulk of shopping in the last week before Christmas.
In 1940, FDR again announced Thanksgiving to be the second-to-last Thursday
of the month. This time, 31 states followed him with the earlier date and 17 kept the traditional date. Confusion over two
Thanksgivings continued.
Lincoln had established the Thanksgiving holiday to bring the country
together, but the confusion over the date change was tearing it apart. On December 26, 1941, Congress passed a law declaring
that Thanksgiving would occur every year on the fourth Thursday of November.
| ©2006 About, Inc., A part of The New York Times Company. All rights
reserved. |
Turkey Tidbits
The heaviest turkey ever raised was 86 pounds.
The male turkey
is called a tom, and the female turkey is called a hen.
Turkeys’ heads change colors when they become excited.
A turkey has several flaps of loose skin around the head and neck that turn color depending on its mood. The flaps are called
the "wattle" (on the chin), the "snood" (on the head and over the beak) and the "caruncle" (on the throat). Under calm conditions,
these areas are pinkish-gray or blue; if the turkey is annoyed or mating, all these areas turn bright red
A 16 week old turkey is called a fryer. A five to seven month old turkey
is called a young roaster and a yearling is a year old. Any turkey 15 months or older is called mature.
Since 1947,
the National Turkey Federation has presented a live turkey and two dressed turkeys to the President. The President does not
eat the live turkey. He "pardons" it and allows it to live out its days on a historical farm.
The American Indians
hunted wild turkey for its sweet, juicy meat as early as 1000 A.D. Turkey feathers were used to stabilize arrows and adorn
ceremonial dress, and the spurs on the legs of wild tom turkeys were used as projectiles on arrowheads.
A newborn turkey chick has to be taught to eat, or it will starve. Breeders
spread feed underfoot, hoping the little ones will peck at it and get the idea. Turkeys tend to look up with their mouths
open during rainstorms. As a result, many drown.
Can turkeys actually fly?
Yes and, as any hunter
will tell you, pretty darned fast. While domesticated turkeys (farm-raised) cannot fly, wild turkeys can fly for short distances
at up to 55 miles per hour. Wild turkeys are also fast on the ground, running at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour.
The dog and the turkey were
the only two domesticated animals in ancient Mexico.
More turkeys are raised in California than in any other state
in the United States.
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