🦃 Why Do We Do That? + Happy Thanksgiving!
Introducing a New Serial Musing + Playlist
Why Do We Do That: Thanksgiving Edition
Thanksgiving is upon us. It’s time for November traditions.
Food.
Football.
Family.
How amusing that they all begin with F. Except for these:
Gratitude or Thankfulness
Black Friday Shopping
Christmas Decorations
I am personally all about traditions. I love looking forward to something that brings joy and happiness each year. (Of course, until it doesn’t. Then it’s time to readjust.)
You may be a person who looks forward to the big November gathering, or you may despise it. Either way, I’ve always been curious since childhood how these traditions originated.
Who told us to make turkey every year? Why are mashed potatoes and green bean casserole the expected side dishes (not that I’m complaining—these are two of my absolute favorites)? When did fucking football decide it needed to coincide with this holiday, when you’re trying to get everyone in the house to be present, yet half of them are lazing around the TV with beers in hand while the other half is cleaning the dishes?
Well, I’ve finally decided to look into it. I’ll do a mini-dive into one of these burning questions, then, because I actually do love holidays and traditions, I’ll add my personally curated playlist for Thanksgiving Day jams.
Let’s jump in!
The burning question I decided to answer: Why turkey?
Here’s what I discovered…
Who
I’ll tell you not who: The Pilgrims. As a millennial who grew up being taught that Thanksgiving = Plymouth Rock + Pilgrims + Indians + turkey, I’m wondering why I’m today years old having first learned the name Sarah Josepha Hale. Let’s blame the patriarchy.
Sarah Josepha Hale was the author of “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” or “Mary’s Lamb,” as she originally titled it, and the apparent “Mother, or Godmother, of Thanksgiving” (in the U.S. anyway). She authored a novel in 1827, Northwood: A Tale of New England, which devoted an entire chapter to her description of a “New England Thanksgiving,” that included (surprise, surprise) turkey as the centerpiece of the meal. Apparently some people believe it was Charles Dickens who popularized the idea of turkey dinner with The Christmas Carol, but that wasn’t until 1843. And, I mean, that’s an English Christmas dinner—not a U.S. Thanksgiving.
Not only did Sarah Josepha Hale write and publish a description of a beautiful Thanksgiving turkey dinner, she advocated for Thanksgiving to become a national holiday, writing letter after letter in what I can only assume is the equivalent of us bombarding politicians with texts and emails on social issues we care about today, and she did not relent until President Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863.
By the way, Hale did not just obsess over Thanksgiving. She was a writer and editor who helped found American Ladies Magazine, using it to discuss women’s issues before taking on a forty-year editorship at the magazine Godey’s Lady Book. Pretty badass, especially in the 1800’s.
What
We just flat out don’t know exactly what was feasted upon at the “first Thanksgiving.” There just is not enough documentation to support it, and historians believe it more likely that the “fowl” referred to in one of the two documents we have from the time, a letter written by colonist Edward Winslow, was probably duck or geese. Turkeys were indigenous to the area, and very much could have been included in the feast, but even if it was, it wasn’t the headliner.
What was? Venison. The only confirmed documented meat (besides the “fowl”) from the three-day-long feast was the five deer the Wampanoag brought to the celebration.
With all of this, it’s fairly obvious that turkey dinner was not modeled after the “First Thanksgiving.”
So, where did it come from?
Where
Medieval Europe traditionally served large wild fowl (including peacocks), which may have been a practice brought over to the colonies in the 17th century. The large fowl native to the Americas was turkey, where they were abundant.
When
Even though turkey was bountiful already when the Pilgrims came to North America, turkey didn’t become a popular dish to serve until the early 19th century. It became popular because…
Why
They were plentiful. Dost thou needith to feed a bunch of people? Get thee outside and grabith a turkey!
Turkeys were first on the slaughter list. Cows were still able to provide milk and hens eggs. Turkeys? Meat.
Their large size. It only took one turkey to feed a family.
It also continues to be a preferable pick today because the animal is cheap to produce, keeping it an affordable feasting option for large guest lists.
How
All of these things seemingly culminated into what we now know to be the traditional Thanksgiving turkey, from Hale and Dickens, a Medieval Europe, to a bountiful native bird, and—what could be more American?—a cheap option to feed many. It wasn’t one “first feast” that made it tradition, or one decision made in time. It was a growing trend that eventually stuck, and who knows—maybe it will fall out of style. There are many people who celebrate Thanksgiving without the big bird at the center. I personally don’t really care for it, despite my love for tradition. I only care for dark meat (white meat is too dry, and I can’t slather it in gravy because I’m sensitive to gluten, which is in most gravy recipes), and by the time I get to the table, all the dark meat is gone.
Maybe one day the traditional turkey will fizzle with time, and people will celebrate by just eating food that makes them happy, that they are grateful for, and that they don’t have to spend all day cooking.
Thanks for reading my first mini-dive into Why We Do That! It’s been a topic I’ve wanted to explore for a long time, and I look forward to doing one next month. If you’d like to read more of these musings, please make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss them!
This newsletter was fun to research, and I learned a lot more than just about Thanksgiving turkey. I wish I could have added all of my discoveries, but I don’t want these musing to be a giant rabbit hole, but as concise as I can possibly make it. If you are curious to learn more, you can check out my sources below.
But first: onto that playlist I promised.
Here’s the link to my Apple playlist, and here’s the one for Spotify.
Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving, whatever it may mean to you and however you may celebrate.
Sources:
Cunningham, John M. "Why Do We Eat Turkey on Thanksgiving?". Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Nov. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-we-eat-turkey-on-thanksgiving. Accessed 16 November 2023.
Kravitz Hoeffner, Melissa. “Why Do We Eat Turkey on Thanksgiving? The Answer May Surprise You”. Real Simple, 23 Sep. 2023, https://www.realsimple.com/why-do-we-eat-turkey-on-thanksgiving-6826842. Accessed 16 November 2023.
Maranzani, Barbara. “How the ‘Mother of Thanksgiving’ Lobbied Abraham Lincoln to Proclaim the National Holiday”. HISTORY, 3 Oct. 2013, https://www.history.com/news/abraham-lincoln-and-the-mother-of-thanksgiving. Accessed 16 November 2023
Waxman, Olivia B. “We Know Less About the First Thanksgiving Than You Probably Think”. TIME, 20 Nov. 2019, https://time.com/5021704/the-first-thanksgiving/. Accessed 16 November 2023