Volume 46 - No. 46
November 24, 2016
By Friedrich Gomez
Thanksgiving is one of America’s biggest and most popular holidays, and yet there is much about this special day which we do not know. Sit back, relax, and have fun reading about one of our most precious days which brings families and friends together to celebrate and honor our country’s rich heritage. This article also offers a fun, interactive part to invite family and friends for a friendly multiple-choice quiz – before or after dinner. So eat, drink, be merry and enjoy some fun – and sometimes shocking – facts about the great American tradition we call Thanksgiving.
On Thanksgiving, the average American will consume about 4,500 calories (per person)! This caloric intake breaks down as follows: 3,000 of those calories will be from the main dinner, itself. Then 1,500 added calories will be ingested on snacking afterwards (all within the same day).
Regarding the original Thanksgiving in America, there is a division of thinking. At this time, there are 12 different claims, each stating that their region was “first” in celebrating what we currently call the Thanksgiving tradition. The areas within the United States which make this first-Thanksgiving-Day-claim are: two areas in Texas, two in Florida, one in Maine, two in Virginia, and five in Massachusetts.
So, according to researchers, “The jury is still out on, definitively, stating where the first European colonists held the first Thanksgiving Day celebration as we know it today.”
There is little dispute, however, that the most famous Thanksgiving celebration was at Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, in the year 1621. That particular Thanksgiving observance lasted three days instead of only one day which we customarily observe today. Here is your first, fun multiple-choice quiz regarding the Plymouth Thanksgiving dinner in 1621.
Question is, which food below was most abundant on the menu (the item most eaten) back then in 1621? A. Turkey B. Fish C. Deer D. Chicken E. Goose
Well, this can be tricky, but, you have 1 in 5 chances of getting the correct answer. If you selected “C” above, The Paper - 760.747.7119
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well, you get an extra portion of pumpkin pie (ala mode). Back in 1621, only a few primary sources (the only surviving documents) confirm what was actually on the menu back then. And while these rare documents confirm that turkey was, indeed, eaten at this historic Thanksgiving, venison (deer) was far more abundant on the menu. It may surprise many readers to also learn that the nearby ocean also yielded up many scrumptious delights, such as fish, lobster, and other seafood delicacies for the early Thanksgiving palate.
An actual eyewitness, and attendee, was Plymouth Colony’s first governor, William Bradford, who was recorded as sending four men on a fowling (hunting) exercise in preparation of the Thanksgiving meal: “And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, Obituaries Memorials Area Services Page 12
with little help beside, served the company almost a week.”
These surviving documents provide a most interesting keyhole glimpse into these historic proceedings, almost 400 years ago. Edward Winslow, an English leader who was in attendance, wrote home to a friend: “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.” Cranberries, which are a regular Thanksgiving Day staple, then and now, were also widely used by the Native Americans to treat wounds and to dye clothes.
The 1621 Pilgrim Thanksgiving Day celebration, which occurred some-
time between September 21 and November 1, included 50 surviving pilgrims and 91 Wampanoag Indians, including Chief Massasoit. History scholars note: “Thanksgiving dinner items at that time included, ducks, geese, shellfish (such as lobster and oysters), eel, fish, berries, boiled pumpkin, fried bread made from corn, watercress, dried fruit, and plums.”
To the pilgrims, a “turkey” sometimes meant any wild fowl (such as a duck or goose) and not just the turkey that we eat today. Incidentally, the wild turkey back in the pilgrim era were very small compared to the large turkeys we eat annually, which are much too large to fly. But, venison (deer) was most abundant at the Plymouth Colony Thanksgiving celebration back in 1621. A lot of Puritans’ personal papers were rediscovered in the middle of the 19th century (mid-1800s), which
Thanksgiving Fun Facts Continued on Page 2