Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVINGNovember 27 , 2008 is Thanksgiving Day. This is my favorite holiday of all. When I was a kid my grandmother and my uncle would come to our house for dinner. This was my mother's mother and brother. Uncle Bob never married and he was the sole support of my grnadmother. My mother would cook for days prior to Thanksgiving--pies, cakes, cookies, and of course, all the regular trimmings.

Of course, there was always a huge turkey. Mom would get up at the break of dawn it seemed to start cooking on Thanksgiving Day. My mother made cooking seem so simple. It didn't matter how many she was cooking for, there was always plenty.

I am originally from Baltimore, Maryland, and one of the "trimmings" at all Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners was sauerkraut. I thought this was just a normal thing, but after I got married I found out it was not "usual". My husband was in the Navy, and most of the 30 years he was active duty we usually had people to the house for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner--usually single active duty people who would have had to eat in the dining hall and spend the day in the barracks. When I put sauerkraut on the table they would look at me as if I were crazy, and when htey would ask why it was there I would look at them as if they were crazy. I once asked my mother why we always had sauerkraut with holiday meals, and she said the only reason she could imagine is because we were of German descent and in the winter people ate what they canned in the summer. Sounds logical to me, but I also know it is tradition throughout Baltimore to ahve sauerkraut with holiday meals.

At this time of year I tend to look back at the past year and count my many blessings. I am thankful for my family. There aren't many of us left anymore, but I am lucky to still have my father. He is 94 years old and lives in an assisted living facility in North Carolina. He doesn't hear very well, but still gets around and is still able to care for himself. He does seem to forget things, but sometimes I don't think it is that he has forgotten as much as it is he doesn't hear you when you tell him something. I also have two brothers, one who lives in Georgia and one in California. We don't see each other as often as I'd like, but I know if I needed them they would be there. I have a husband to whom I've been married more than 36 years. I know it has been easier for me than for him--he is very easy going and laid back, and I can be a real witch at times. He is the one person in the world who has seen me at my best and my worst and accepts me unconditionally either way. I have two children, one in Alaska, one in California. I can only hope my children are as proud of me as I am of them, but I doubt they ever could be. I don;t think children ever know how important they are to their parents. I can;t imagine not having either of mine. I am as proud of one as the other, and no matter where they are, what they do, or who they become, I will love them. I have two grandchildren, one granddaughter and one grandson. My granddaughter is 4, and when she was born was about six week early. She was so tiny and her entire birht was one of the scariest things I've ever been through, but she was and is wonderful. She is beautiful and smart and a complete joy. My grandson is two, and he waited the full term to be born. He was nearly twice his sister's size and there was no where near the fear when he was born. He too is handsome and smart and a joy to all. I have a job, a roof over my head, food on my table, and clothes on my back. My bills are paid. All my family is healthy. While my family is spread across the country, we are all safe. My son-in-law will return from a six month deployment on Monday to a family eagerly awaiting his return. We live in a country that is free.

There is a lot to reflect on at this time of year. We once had a pastor at a church we belonged to who used to get so upset because he said Thanksgiving seemed to be forgotten. Everyone celebrated Halloween then went right into Christmas mode. He used to say Thanksgiving is the one and only true American religious holiday--a day to give thanks for all you have, yet we seem to ignore it. I agree with him. But I also think that is one of the things that makes Thanksgiving so much my favorite. There is no commercialism to Thanksgiving. It's a day for family, friends, reflection, and good times.

I find myself thinking of people and events at Thanksgiving that I don't think of any other time of the years. I remember when I was a kid the big game in Baltimore was the City-Poly game. They were two high schools in Baltimore. One year when my brohters were in college they went to the game. They were really late getting home and dinner was delayed that year. I also remember the elementary school I went to had a teacher whose family owned a turkey farm. Each year she would give her students a pumpkin and they would also take a field trip to the turkey farm. Now, this doesn't sound exciting, but when you're in the first grade it is a big deal. The kids loved it.

I thought it would be interesting to learn about the "first Thanksgiving", and I was surprised to learn there is a lot of misinformation out there. So I will tell everyone some of the interesting facts I've learned about Thanksgiving:

The origins of Thanksgiving is that it was a day at the end of harvest time to celebrate and give thanks for all the safely harvested crops. In 1621 the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is today acknowledged as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Indians. Though many consider this the first Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually one of a long tradition of celegrating the harvest and giving thanks for the successful bounty of crops. Many Native American groups throughout the Americas organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances and other celebrations for centuries before the Europeans arrived in North America. There have been other ceremonies recorded among European settlers in North America. One such ceremony was British Settlers in BErkeley Plantation, Virginia. Here, in 1619 a group of British settlers led by Captain Joh Woodlief "knelt in prayer and pledged "Thanksgiving" to God for their healthy arrival after a long voyage across the Atlantic." (Historychannel.com). This has been acknowledged by some as the original Thanksgiving among European Settlers.

According to Historychannel.com, turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie were not part of the first Thanksgiving. They state the most detailed description of the "First Thanksgiving comes from Edward Winslow from A Journal of the Pilgrams at Plymouth in 1621:

"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, among 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 upon 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."

Historychannel.com lists the following as possibly being on the Pilgrams' menu on the first Thanksgiving:

Seafood: Cod, Eel, Clams and Lobster.

Wild Fowl: Wild Turkey, Goose, Duck, Crane, Swan, Partridge and Eagles.

Meat: Venison and 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.

The following are things, that while they are today considered staples of Thanksgiving dinner, probably did not appear on the first dinner:

Ham: There is no evidence the colonists had butchered a pig by this time even though they had brought pigs with them from Europe.

Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes: These were not common foods among the settlers.

Corn on the Cob: Corn was kept dried out at this time of year.

Cranberry Sauce: The colonists had cranberries, but no sugar.

Pumpkin Pie: Did not exist at this time, although the pilgrims did have recipes for stewed pumpkin.

Chicken/Eggs: It is known the colonists brought hens with them from England, but no one knows how many were left at the time of the first celebration, nor how many were still laying.

Milk: The colonists brought no cows on the Mayflower, although it is possible they made cheese from goat's milk.

The pilgrims did not use forks, but ate with spoons, knives and their fingers. They wiped their hands on large cloth napkins, which were also used to pick up hot foods. Salt would have been on the table and it was sprinkled on food, but pepper, although used for cooking, was not available on the table. Social standing determined what people ate, with the best food being placed at the plate of the most important people. There was no sampling of everything on the table, people ate what was closest to them. Meals were not served individually, but onto the table and people took the food from the table and ate it. The servers moved the food from the palced where it was cooked to the table. The pilgrims did not eat in courses. All of the different foods were placed on the table at the same time and the people ate in any order they chose. There may have been two courses, but they would each contain meat dishes, puddings and sweets. Today's Thanksgiving dinner centers around the turkey, but the pilgrims had many different meats. Vegetables were not an important part of the pilgrims' meal, and depending on the time of year, many vegetables were not available. Sweets were also not readily available. Although they had brought sugar witht hem on the Mayflower the suppy was low. Since they did not have ovens cakes, pies and breads were not possible. The first Thanksgiving meal would be considered fatty by today's standards, but was probably healthy for the pilgrims, who were more active than people today, and anyway, they were more concerned with the plague and pox than with high cholesterol. The pilgrims used many spices including cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper and dried fruit. Proportions were not measured, the cook just improvised. Foods were usually roasted and someone was assigned to sit for hours to turn the spit and make sure the meat was evenly cooked. There were no refrigerators, so foods were dried to preserve them. The pilrgims dried corn, hams, fish and herbs. The biggest meal of the day was eaten about noon and called noonmeat or dinner. The housewives would spend part of the morning cooking that meal. Supper was a smaller meal at the end of the day, and breakfast was usually leftovers from the previous day's noonmeat. In a pilgrim household, the adults sat to eat and the children and servants waited on them. The foods that the colonists and the Wampanoag Indians ate were similiar but their eating habits were very different. The colonists had set eating patterns, breakfast, dinner and supper, the Wampanoags ate when they were hungry, and usually had pots cooking throughout the day.

So, how much do we really know about Thanksgiving? In the following sections I am including myths, facts and interesting information about the holiday. I got all of this information from historychannel.com.

"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 years afterward.

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 thanksgicing wa 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 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 occured 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 occured around the 29th of September. After that first harvest was completed by the Plymouth colonists, Gov. William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving and prayer, shared by all the colonists and neighboring Indians. In 1623 a day of fasting and prayer during a period of drought was changed to one of thanksgiving because the rain came during the prayers. Gradually the custom prevailed in New England of annually celebrating thanksgiving after the harvest.
During the American Revolution a yearly day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress. In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom, and by the middle of the 19th century many other states had done the same. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a day of thanksgiving as the last Thursday in November, which he may have correlated it with the November 21, 1621, anchoring of the Mayflower at Cape Cod. Since then, each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set the date for Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941)

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 Mayflower was headed for Virginia, but due to a navigational mistake it ended up in Cape Cod Massachusetts.

Fact: The Pilgrims were in fact planning to settle in Virginia, but not the modern-day state of Virginia. They were part of the Virginia Company, which had the rights to most of the eastern seaboard of the U.S. The pilgrims had intended to go to the Hudson River region in New York State, which would have been considered "Northern Virginia," but they landed in Cape Cod instead. Treacherous seas prevented them from venturing further south.

Though many competing claims exist, the most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, in 1621. More than 200 years later, President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving. Congress finally made Thanksgiving Day an official national holiday in 1941.
Sarah Josepha Hale, the enormously influential magazine editor and author who waged a tireless campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in the mid-19th century, was also the author of the classic nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
In 2001, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative Thanksgiving stamp. Designed by the artist Margaret Cusack in a style resembling traditional folk-art needlework, it depicted a cornucopia overflowing with fruits and vegetables, under the phrase "We Give Thanks."

Despite record-high gas prices (more than $3.00 per gallon) in 2007, the American Automobile Association (AAA) estimated that 38.7 million Americans would travel 50 miles or more from home for the Thanksgiving holiday, a slight increase (1.5 percent) over the previous year.
Of those Americans traveling for Thanksgiving in 2007, approximately 80 percent (31.2 million) were expected to go by motor vehicle, 12.1 percent (4.7 million) by airplane and the rest (2.8 million) by train, bus or other mode of transportation.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Minnesota is the top turkey-producing state in America, with a planned production total of 49 million in 2008. Just six states—Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia, Missouri and Indiana—will probably produce two-thirds of the estimated 271 million birds that will be raised in the U.S. this year.
The National Turkey Federation estimated that 46 million turkeys—one fifth of the annual total of 235 million consumed in the United States in 2007—were eaten at Thanksgiving.
In a survey conducted by the National Turkey Federation, nearly 88 percent of Americans said they eat turkey at Thanksgiving. The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 15 pounds, which means some 690 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the U.S. during Thanksgiving in 2007.
The cranberry is one of only three fruits—the others are the blueberry and the Concord grape—that are entirely native to North American soil, according to the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest pumpkin pie ever baked weighed 2,020 pounds and measured just over 12 feet long. It was baked on October 8, 2005 by the New Bremen Giant Pumpkin Growers in Ohio, and included 900 pounds of pumpkin, 62 gallons of evaporated milk, 155 dozen eggs, 300 pounds of sugar, 3.5 pounds of salt, 7 pounds of cinnamon, 2 pounds of pumpkin spice and 250 pounds of crust.

Three towns in the U.S. take their name from the traditional Thanksgiving bird, including Turkey, Texas (pop. 465); Turkey Creek, Louisiana (pop. 363); and Turkey, North Carolina (pop. 270).
Originally known as Macy's Christmas Parade—to signify the launch of the Christmas shopping season—the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade took place in New York City in 1924. It was launched by Macy's employees and featured animals from the Central Park Zoo. Today, some 3 million people attend the annual parade and another 44 million watch it on television.
Tony Sarg, a children's book illustrator and puppeteer, designed the first giant hot air balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1927. He later created the elaborate mechanically animated window displays that grace the façade of the New York store from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
Snoopy has appeared as a giant balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade more times than any other character in history. As the Flying Ace, Snoopy made his sixth appearance in the 2006 parade.
The first National Football League game held on Thanksgiving Day was in 1934, when the Detroit Lions played the Chicago Bears at the University of Detroit stadium, in front of 26,000 fans. The NBC radio network broadcast the game on 94 stations across the country. Since that time, the Lions have played a game every Thanksgiving (except between 1939 and 1944); in 1956, fans watched the game on television for the first time.

1. Fact or Fiction: Thanksgiving is held on the final Thursday of November each year.
Fiction. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln designated the last Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving. However, in 1939, after a request from the National Retail Dry Goods Association, President Franklin Roosevelt decreed that the holiday should always be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month (and never the occasional fifth, as occurred in 1939) in order to extend the holiday shopping season by a week. The decision sparked great controversy, and was still unresolved two years later, when the House of Representatives passed a resolution making the last Thursday in November a legal national holiday. The Senate amended the resolution, setting the date as the fourth Thursday, and the House eventually agreed.

2. Fact or Fiction: One of America's Founding Fathers thought the turkey should be the national bird of the United States.

Fact. In a letter to his daughter sent in 1784, Benjamin Franklin suggested that the wild turkey would be a more appropriate national symbol for the newly independent United States than the bald eagle (which had earlier been chosen by the Continental Congress). He argued that the turkey was "a much more respectable Bird," "a true original Native of America," and "though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage."

3.Fact or Fiction: In 1863, Abraham Lincoln became the first American president to proclaim a national day of thanksgiving.

Fiction. George Washington, John Adams and James Madison all issued proclamations urging Americans to observe days of thanksgiving, both for general good fortune and for particularly momentous events (the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, in Washington's case; the end of the War of 1812, in Madison's).

4.Fact or Fiction: Macy's was the first American department store to sponsor a parade in celebration of Thanksgiving.

Fiction. The Philadelphia department store Gimbel's had sponsored a parade in 1920, but the Macy's parade, launched four years later, soon became a Thanksgiving tradition and the standard kickoff to the holiday shopping season. The parade became ever more well-known after it featured prominently in the hit film Miracle on 34th Street (1947), which shows actual footage of the 1946 parade. In addition to its famous giant balloons and floats, the Macy's parade features live music and other performances, including by the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes and cast members of well-known Broadway shows.

5. Fact or Fiction: Turkeys are slow-moving birds that lack the ability to fly.

Fiction (kind of). Domesticated turkeys (the type eaten on Thanksgiving) cannot fly, and their pace is limited to a slow walk. Female domestic turkeys, which are typically smaller and lighter than males, can move somewhat faster. Wild turkeys, on the other hand, are much smaller and more agile. They can reach speeds of up to 20-25 miles per hour on the ground and fly for short distances at speeds approaching 55 miles per hour. They also have better eyesight and hearing than their domestic counterparts.

6. Fact or Fiction: Native Americans used cranberries, now a staple of many Thanksgiving dinners, for cooking as well as medicinal purposes.

Fact. According to the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association, one of the country's oldest farmers' organizations, Native Americans used cranberries in a variety of foods, including "pemmican" (a nourishing, high-protein combination of crushed berries, dried deer meat and melted fat). They also used it as a medicine to treat arrow punctures and other wounds and as a dye for fabric. The Pilgrims adopted these uses for the fruit and gave it a name—"craneberry"—because its drooping pink blossoms in the spring reminded them of a crane.

7. Fact or Fiction: The movement of the turkey inspired a ballroom dance.

Fact. The turkey trot, modeled on that bird's characteristic short, jerky steps, was one of a number of popular dance styles that emerged during the late 19th and early 20th century in the United States. The two-step, a simple dance that required little to no instruction, was quickly followed by such dances as the one-step, the turkey trot, the fox trot and the bunny hug, which could all be performed to the ragtime and jazz music popular at the time. The popularity of such dances spread like wildfire, helped along by the teachings and performances of exhibition dancers like the famous husband-and-wife team Vernon and Irene Castle.

8. Fact or Fiction: On Thanksgiving Day in 2007, two turkeys earned a trip to Disney World.

Fact. On November 20, 2007, President George W. Bush granted a "pardon" to two turkeys, named May and Flower, at the 60th annual National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation, held in the Rose Garden at the White House. The two turkeys were flown to Orlando, Florida, where they served as honorary grand marshals for the Disney World Thanksgiving Parade. The current tradition of presidential turkey pardons began in 1947, under Harry Truman, but the practice is said to have informally begun with Abraham Lincoln, who granted a pardon to his son Tad's pet turkey.

9. Fact or Fiction: Turkey contains an amino acid that makes you sleepy.

Fact. Turkey does contain the essential amino acid tryptophan, which is a natural sedative, but so do a lot of other foods, including chicken, beef, pork, beans and cheese. Though many people believe turkey's tryptophan content is what makes many people feel sleepy after a big Thanksgiving meal, it is more likely the combination of fats and carbohydrates most people eat with the turkey, as well as the large amount of food (not to mention alcohol, in some cases) consumed, that makes most people feel like following their meal up with a nap.

10. Fact or Fiction: The tradition of playing or watching football on Thanksgiving started with the first National Football League game on the holiday in 1934.

Fiction. The American tradition of college football on Thanksgiving is pretty much as old as the sport itself. The newly formed American Intercollegiate Football Association held its first championship game on Thanksgiving Day in 1876. At the time, the sport resembled something between rugby and what we think of as football today. By the 1890s, more than 5,000 club, college and high school football games were taking place on Thanksgiving, and championship match-ups between schools like Princeton and Yale could draw up to 40,000 fans. The NFL took up the tradition in 1934, when the Detroit Lions (recently arrived in the city and renamed) played the Chicago Bears at the University of Detroit stadium in front of 26,000 fans. Since then, the Lions game on Thanksgiving has become an annual event, taking place every year except during the World War II years (1939–1944).

So, no matter where you are, who you are or how you celebrate Thanksgiving, enjoy the day. I hope everyone is able to spend the day with family and friends. Sometime during the day, take a moment to stop and give thanks for all you have and realize how lucky we all are. I hope you day is full of tradition and a time to be remembered for many years. Take a moment too to remember the members of your family who are no longer here. Take comfort in the fact that as long as you remember them they will not be gone. Pray for your family and friends who cannot be present for whatever reason, especially our military who put their lives in danger every day. Wouldn't it be wonderful if for just one day we could have total peace? Happy Thanksgiving everyone. May it be a day of family, good friends, good food, good memories and one that will be repeated often in the future.