The Thanksgiving holiday is probably as familiar to you as your birthday. But for all the years you’ve celebrated Thanksgiving, how much do you know about its history and origins? Read on for some fun facts about the Thanksgiving holiday.
Thanksgiving Holiday Origins
The date of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. is the fourth Thursday in November.
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a national holiday of thanksgiving. President Franklin Roosevelt later specified that Thanksgiving should be the fourth Thursday, not the occasional fifth Thursday, to encourage earlier holiday shopping.
The early origins of Thanksgiving can be traced to a three-day feast the Pilgrims held in 1621 to celebrate a bountiful harvest.
Thanksgiving Meal
Turkey is the centerpiece of a traditional Thanksgiving meal. The U.S. produced about 271 million turkeys in 2007, weighing 7.9 billion pounds and valued at $3.7 billion.
Minnesota is the top turkey-raising state, with 49 million turkey expected in 2008. The next biggest turkey producers are North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia and Missouri.
Farmers are expected to receive $4.3 billion from turkey sales in 2008. The U.S. imported $9.2 million worth of live turkeys in the first seven months of the year, 99% from Canada.
Thanksgiving Trimmings
To garnish all those turkeys, U.S. cranberry growers expect to produce 689 million pounds of the tart red berries in 2008. Wisconsin grows the most, anticipated at 385 million pounds. Massachusetts is next, with 190 million pounds.
As a side dish, many Americans serve sweet potato - I like it with marshmallows on top. North Carolina grew the most sweet potatoes, 667 million pounds in 2007, with California second at 426 million pounds. Altogether, the major states grew 1.8 billion pounds.
For dessert, pumpkin pie creates a healthy demand for the $117 million worth of pumpkins produced in 2007. Illinois grew the most orange gourds, at 542 million pounds.
And for the obligatory second pie, cherry farmers expect to grow 177 million pounds of tart cherries in 2008. Michigan dominates production with 135 million pounds.
Fast Thanksgiving Facts
The typical American consumed 13.3 pounds of turkey in 2006 and 4.6 pounds of sweet potatoes.
A frozen whole turkey cost about $1 per pound in December 2007.
28 different locations in the U.S. are named Plymouth, after the first landing site of the Pilgrims - Plymouth Rock.
Winslow, 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 fruits of our labor. 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 we 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 at 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.” William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation :
“They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their house and dwelling against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned by true reports.”
The story of Thanksgiving is basically the story of the Pilgrims and their thankful community feast at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The Pilgrims, who set sail from Plymouth, England on a ship called the Mayflower on September 6, 1620, were fortune hunters, bound for the resourceful ‘New World’. The Mayflower was a small ship crowded with men, women and children, besides the sailors on board. Aboard were passengers comprising the ’separatists’, who called themselves the “Saints”, and others, whom the separatists called the “Strangers”.
After land was sighted in November following 66 days of a lethal voyage, a meeting was held and an agreement of truce was worked out. It was called the Mayflower Compact.
The agreement guaranteed equality among the members of the two groups. They merged together to be recognized as the “Pilgrims.” They elected John Carver as their first governor.
Although Pilgrims had first sighted the land off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, they did not settle until they arrived at a place called Plymouth. It was Captain John Smith who named the place after the English port-city in 1614 and had already settled there for over five years. And it was there that the Pilgrims finally decided to settle. Plymouth offered an excellent harbor and plenty of resources. The local Indians were also non-hostile.
But their happiness was short-lived. Ill-equipped to face the winter on this estranged place they were ravaged thoroughly.
Somehow they were saved by a group of local Native Americans who befriended them and helped them with food. Soon the natives taught the settlers the technique to cultivate corns and grow native vegetables, and store them for hard days. By the next winter they had raised enough crops to keep them alive. The winter came and passed by without much harm. The settlers knew they had beaten the odds and it was time to celebrate.
They celebrated it with a grand community feast wherein the friendly native Americans were also invited. It was kind of a harvest feast, the Pilgrims used to have in England. The recipes entail “corn” (wheat, by the Pilgrims usage of the word), Indian corn, barley, pumpkins and peas, “fowl” (specially “waterfowl”), deer, fish. And yes, of course the yummy wild turkey.
However, the third year was real bad when the corns got damaged. Pilgrim Governor William Bradford ordered a day of fasting and prayer, and rain happened to follow soon. To celebrate - November 29th of that year was proclaimed a day of thanksgiving. This date is believed to be the real beginning of the present Thanksgiving Day.
Though the Thanksgiving Day is presently celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every November. This date was set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941). Earlier it was the last Thursday in November as was designated by the former President Abraham Lincoln. But sometimes the last Thursday would turn out to be the fifth Thursday of the month. This falls too close to the Christmas, leaving the businesses even less than a month’s time to cope up with the two big festivals. Hence the change.
The Thanksgiving Turkey
“I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country: he is a Bird of bad moral character: like those among Men who live by Sharping and Robbing, he is generally poor and very often lousy.
The Turkey is a much more respectable Bird and withal a true original Native of North America”
Benjamin Franklin
Of all the Thanksgiving symbols the Turkey has become the most well known. The wild turkey is native to northern Mexico and the eastern United States.
The turkey has brown features with buff-colored feathers on the tips of the wing and on the tail. The male turkey is called a Tom and, as with most birds, is bigger and has brighter and more colorful plumage. The female is called a Hen and is generally smaller and drab in color.
The Tom turkey has a long wattle (a fleshy, wrinkled, brightly colored fold of skin hanging from the neck or throat)at the base of its bill and additional wattles on the neck, as well as a prominent tuft of bristles resembling a beard projecting downward from its chest.
The turkey was originally domesticated in Mexico, and was brought into Europe early in the 16th century. Since that time, turkeys have been extensively raised because of the excellent quality of their meat and eggs. Some of the common breeds of turkey in the United States are the Bronze, Narragansett, White Holland, and Bourbon Red.
Though there is no real evidence that turkey was served at the Pilgrim’s first thanksgiving, in a book written by the Pilgrim’s Governor Bradford he does make mention of wild turkeys. In a letter sent to England, another Pilgrim describes how the governor sent “four men out fowling” returning with turkeys, ducks and geese.
Chef Walter Potenza
