The Thanksgiving Tradition
History and Lore Around the Feast
Thanksgiving is celebrated in many countries around the world as a harvest festival, a day of giving thanks for the bounty received. Here in the U.S., we treat it as an occasion to eat a massive feast with family and friends. It’s a day off of work on the fourth Thursday of the month of November. It’s a day of stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and, of course, turkey. And it’s a day of many calories. An average Thanksgiving meal contains more than 3,000 calories and 130 grams of fat. In fact, between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, most people take in as many as 17,500 more calories than throughout the rest of the year, which can result in a five- to seven-pound weight gain.
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The tradition of feasting is relatively new, even though the holiday's origin dates back almost 400 years. According to lore, the tradition
to celebrate Thanksgiving can be traced to a simple meal
in 1621. Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians sat down
to a three-day feast celebrating the year's harvest. The
meal consisted of venison, wild fowl, sea bass, cod, Indian
corn, pumpkin and perhaps walnuts and plums. In the 17th
century, meals didn't include many vegetables, and even
potatoes and sweet potatoes were rather uncommon. The colonists
had no sugar, either, so their feast was very different
from today's Thanksgiving dinners, which usually contain
sweet pumpkin pie or at least some kind of dessert. While
the meal must have been — for the times' standards — an
elaborate affair, it is hard to say if it is truly the origin
of the Thanksgiving tradition since it was not repeated
the following year. Instead, it might be more accurate to
say that Thanksgiving as we know it has been progressively
created over the centuries.
James
W. Baker, Senior Historian at Plimoth Plantation on the
History Channel says that the reason "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."
The
First Thanksgiving at Plymouth by Jennie A. Brownscombe
(1850-1936)
Over time, the Thanksgiving tradition in the United States
developed into a national holiday. In 1676, the governing
council of Charlestown, MA, proclaimed June 29 as a day
of Thanksgiving. Then, in 1789, George Washington declared
a National Day of Thanksgiving on October 3. In 1863, President
Lincoln chose the last Thursday in November for the same
purpose, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt set the date
for Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November in 1939,
a decision approved by Congress in 1941. Clearly, what we
celebrate today as Thanksgiving is very different from the
first days of the holiday, but the point remains the same — taking
time to recognize and give thanks for the year's blessings.
And what better way to celebrate the good things in life
than with great food and family?
 For research purposes, we thank www.pilgrimhall.org and www.history.com
(Updated: 10/31/11 BH) |
