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Food Traditions from the Thanksgiving Table

Was the Turkey Not Invited to the Original Thanksgiving?

Were Pilgrims and Indians present at the first Thanksgiving? Yes, of course. Was a turkey there? Probably not. It’s strange to think that our annual main course was missing, but one of only two original descriptions of the first Thanksgiving by Edward Winslow is void of any comment about a turkey.

Winslow’s account of what was called a “Harvest Celebration” comes from a letter dated December 1621, which details a three-day event where the Wampanoag Indians with over 90 men and their Chief Massasoit joined 53 pilgrims for a feast. The Governor sent four men fowling and the Indian tribe killed five deer. Turkey was never mentioned and the fowl were most likely in-season waterfowl, such as geese and duck. Now, unless the turkeys back then stood on webbed feet and swam in nearby lakes, they were not part of or at least not a focal point of the meal.

Interestingly, foods that were listed also included lobster, corn, beans, squash, mussels, and oysters. For you potato lovers out there, we’re sorry to say that spuds were not part of this celebration. Potatoes had not even been introduced to North America at that time. They did, however, have eels on the menu. Can you imagine your family’s reaction to an eel on your Thanksgiving dinner table?

Another description of the original Thanksgiving came out years later, provided by Governor William Bradford in his manuscript Of Plimoth Plantation. Bradford references many foods that were gathered at the harvest, which included a “great store of wild Turkeys.” Bradford’s book was lost during the Revolutionary War and did not resurface until the mid-1800s. This is when the idea of having turkey for a celebration of harvest and calling it “Thanksgiving” became the brainchild of Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book.

Hale filled her magazine with recipes of roasted turkeys, gravies, stuffing, and pumpkin pies, obviously more similar to what we enjoy today. She created many of the holiday traditions that we are familiar with celebrating on Thanksgiving, but these traditions vary greatly from the events originally experienced in 1621. Hale also lobbied to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, which President Abraham Lincoln made official in 1863.

Whether you call it a “Harvest Celebration” or say “Thanksgiving,” the idea remains the same to come together, give thanks, and be grateful for all that we have in this world. Food often brings people together, but this particular celebration has become a representation of the love we share for one another. We are part of that greater force, which is the human race – and the turkey is optional.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Eat, Heal, Travel.