Happy Thanksgiving, y’all! For the holiday, we’re sharing with you one of our favorite Thanksgiving origin stories from Hightower below. And as a bonus, while you’re cooking your food or relaxing after dinner, here’s our Dinner Democracy show from 2021, featuring friends Raj Patel and Tom Philpott.
Let’s talk Turkey!
No, not the Butterballs in Congress. I’m talking about the real thing, the big gobbler – 46 million of which we Americans will devour this Thanksgiving.
It was the Aztecs who first domesticated the gallopavo, but the invading Spanish conquerors “fouled-up” the bird’s origins. They declared it to be related to the peacock – Wrong! They also thought the peacock originated in Turkey – Wrong! And, they thought Turkey was located in Africa – well, you can see the Spanish were pretty confused.
Actually, even the origin of Thanksgiving Day in the US is confused. The popular assumption is that it was first celebrated by the Mayflower immigrants and the Wampanoag natives at Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1621. They feasted on venison, furkees (Wampanoag for gobblers), eels, mussels, corn, and beer. But wait, say Virginians, the first Thanksgiving Food-a-Palooza was not in Massachusetts – the feast originated down here in Jamestown colony, back in 1608.
Whoa there, pilgrims! Folks in El Paso, Texas, say it all began way out there in 1598, when Spanish settlers sat down with people of the Piro and Manso tribes, to give thanks, feasting on roasted duck, geese and fish.
“Ha!” says a Florida group, asserting the very, very first Thanksgiving happened in 1565 when the Spanish settlers of St. Augustine and friends from the Timucuan tribe chowed-down on “cocido” – a stew of salt pork, garbanzo beans and garlic – washing it all down with red wine.
Wherever it began, and whatever the purists claim is “official,” Thanksgiving today is as multicultural as America. So, let’s enjoy! Kick-back, give thanks we’re in a country with such ethnic richness, and dive into your turkey rellenos, moo-shu turkey, turkey falafel, barbecued turkey… and so on.
Oh, the glorious confusion! It's cool that even such a "hallowed" tradition as Thanksgiving can have such very diverse origins. It's woke! It's wonderful! Enjoy sitting down with loved ones and gobbling up the gobblers - and please, no talk about politics!!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING, Y'ALL!
I am thankful for this column and for Jim who writes it, among other things, and for everyone who reads it. I feel included when it appears in my email inbox. I appreciate that I am not alone in these troubled times. Happy Thanksgiving to all and, as those of us of a certain age used to say, 'keep on keepin' on!'
So glad to have you to do your usual job of educating me on traditions, Hightower! Hope you’re stuffing yourself with stuffed gobbler!
Thanks for the sorting out and the smile it brought.
Or - for those with compassion - skipping the torturous upbringing of overweight and overstressed suffering birds and having an environmentally compassionate and quite delicious vegetarian or vegan Thanksgiving. The birds and your body will thank YOU!
Vegetarian Thanksgiving worked for me!
Feeding the birds every day through the winter is my goal. We have snow covered roses, azaleas and quince in full bloom. Amazingly so !
Likewise. I have five feeders out during the winter. I have a problem with squirrels and deer feeding from my feeders. But the window feeder works best of all. All the assorted varmints can't get up to my second-floor window.
I’m not having such a great Thanksgiving thanks to the incompetence of the company that serves the trust accounts of prisoners in the state of Michigan. I am a mother who has been trying to send money, including money orders to my son in prison since last May. Nothing registers on his account and he is beginning to feel that I must be playing mind games on him. That’s another story. However, as depressed as I am, I opened your Thanksgiving message about the origins of the ‘first feast’ and, I swear, just your language, Mr. Hightower, puts a smile on my face as depressed as I am. Thanks for the info and double thank you for your unique voice! 💜
Have you seen the movie "The Perez Family"? See how sending money into the prison system worked out for Juan Perez.
I'll check it out! Thank you.
Mary, our hearts go out to you.
Happy fat Friday! Sharing and enjoying all of those Thanksgiving Day dinner leftovers. We are blessed with muchness and thank you deare for this food here and now and each other. I call the spirit of share and enjoy Santa, so that caring and loving are the joy of this holiday season, all of the Holidays of all of the Religions. Just like the Jesus of Nazareth said in the New Testment of King James or was it Prince James?
To the Plimoth settlers, a "thanksgiving" was a day set aside to give thanks to God for some special and unexpected blessing. By that standard, the "first Thanksgiving" was a LONG time ago.
But as for what the "Pilgrims" (who didn't call themselves that) ate, the corn would have been in the form of a coarse corn bread, there would have been precious little beer (as the English grains "grew indifferent good"), and there would have been other fish in addition to eels.
But the stars of the show would have been duck and goose, as "our governor sent four men on fowling" specifically in preparation for the feast.
If you want a longer dissertation on the Plimoth "First Thanksgivfing," try mine: https://whoviating.substack.com/p/happy-t-day