Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. So uhh Happy Thanksgiving!
I found some facts on Thanksgiving and thought they were cool to know…so I included them below. Take a look….

The Wampanoag Indians

When the Pilgrims first landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts in Dec. 26, 1620, it was the day after Christmas. Those who know Massachusetts winters realize that this was just about the worst time to land, with frozen land, no food, and bitter snows coming shortly. The ship had carried 102 passengers, and about half of the Pilgrims died during this first winter. Still, that even some of them survived was thanks to the native Wampanoag Indians, who met up with them soon after they landed.

The Wampanoags lived in small villages along the coastline of both Massachusetts and Rhode Island. They fished, farmed, and were generally peaceful and friendly. They lived in wigwams, and wore deerskin outfits.

Squanto

The Indian which helped the Pilgrims the most was “Squanto”, who had visited England before and knew how to speak English and work with these visitors. His ability to communicate with the Pilgrims and show them how to survive in this harsh winter was key to their survival.

The First Thanksgiving

The pilgrims invited their two key Indian helpers, Squanto, Samoset, plus Chief Massasoit, to share in their Thanksgiving since they had been so instrumental in the pilgrims´ successes that summer. The Indians brought their families, numbering over 90 people. The pilgrims were overwhelmed, and didn´t have enough food, so the Indians brought along their own supplies for the feast. The Wampanoags brought turkey, deer, berries, squash, cornbread, and beans – things that they’d farmed and that they’d shown the Pilgrims how to care for.

Cultural Differences

The Wampanoag Indians normally ate sitting on the ground, on furs. For this special occasion, they sat at the tables with the Pilgrims. The Indian women and men both ate together. Pilgrim women didn´t have this equal status though – they had to stand behind their menfolk, dutifully waiting until the men were done and full before they were allowed to eat anything.

The Spread of Thanksgiving

Many states began having their own Thanksgiving celebrations in the fall, to give thanks for bountiful harvests. Abraham Lincoln made it official, and set aside the third Thursday as the national holiday in 1863.

Our corn [i.e. wheat] did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown.  They came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom.  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, 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 they 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.

The second description was written about twenty years after the fact by William Bradford in his History Of Plymouth Plantation.  Bradford’s History was rediscovered in 1854 after having been taken by British looters during the Revolutionary War.  Its discovery prompted a greater American interest in the history of the Pilgrims, which eventually led to Lincoln’s decision to make Thanksgiving a holiday.  It is also in this account that the Thanksgiving turkey tradition is founded.

They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings 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 exercising 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 but true reports.

The following is a fairly complete list of the foods available to the Pilgrims during the three-day Thanksgiving harvest celebration. As can be seen in the above two quotations, the only foods specifically mentioned by the Pilgrims are: “corn” (wheat, by the Pilgrims usage of the word), Indian corn, barley, peas (if any where spared), “fowl” (Bradford says “waterfowl”), five deer, fish (namely bass and cod), and wild turkey.  

The Plimoth Plantation Museum has a nice recipe page that includes a number of modernized recipes to closely simulate the actual foods likely eaten by the Pilgrims during this harvest festival.
Foods Available to the Pilgrims for their 1621 Thanksgiving

FISH:  cod, bass, herring, shad, bluefish, and lots of eel.
SEAFOOD:  clams, lobsters, mussels, and very small quantities of oysters
BIRDS:  wild turkey, goose, duck, crane, swan, partridge, and other miscellaneous waterfowl; they were also known to have occasionally eaten eagles (which “tasted like mutton” according to Winslow in 1623.)
OTHER MEAT:  venison (deer), possibly some salt pork or chicken.
GRAIN:  wheat flour, Indian corn and corn meal; barley (mainly for beer-making).
FRUITS:  raspberries, strawberries, grapes, plums, cherries, blueberries, gooseberries (these would have been dried, as none would have been in season).
VEGETABLES:  small quantity of peas, squashes (including pumpkins), beans
NUTS:  walnuts, chestnuts, acorns, hickory nuts, ground nuts
HERBS and SEASONINGS: onions, leeks, strawberry leaves, currants, sorrel, yarrow, carvel, brooklime, liverwort, watercress, and flax; from England they brought seeds and probably planted radishes, lettuce, carrots, onions, and cabbage.  Olive oil in small quantities may have been brought over, though the Pilgrims had to sell most of their oil and butter before sailing, in order to stay on budget.

OTHER:  maple syrup, honey; small quantities of butter, Holland cheese; and eggs.
Some perhaps startling omissions from the authentic Thanksgiving menu
Ham.  (The Pilgrims most likely did not have pigs with them).
Beer. Yes, they most likey had beer, water and tea to drink.
Sweet Potatoes-Potatoes-Yams.  (These had not yet been introduced to New England).
Corn on the cob. (Indian corn was only good for making cornmeal, not eating on the cob).
Popcorn.  (Contrary to popular folklore, popcorn was not introduced at the 1621 Thanksgiving.  Indian corn could only be half-popped, and this wouldn’t have tasted very good.)
Cranberry sauce.  (Cranberries were available, but sugar was not.)
Pumpkin Pie:  (They probably made a pumpkin pudding of sorts, sweetened by honey or syrup, which would be like the filling of a pumpkin pie, but there would be no crust or whipped topping.)

If you read all that you need to find something to do….go visit family and friends and thank God for all He has done for you.

Happy Thanksgiving

James