The Red Brick Times

Thanksgiving did not originate with the Pilgrims -- it was an ancient historical custom they would have been familiar with from England. What the Pilgrims were celebrating was really not a "thanksgiving," an occasion for religious piety and solemnity, but more of a harvest festival full of "revelry, sports, and feast."

Although the only two contemporary accounts of that first Thanksgiving mention "fowl" and "wild Turkies," the animal we call a turkey was most likely not one of the items on the menu. Those words probably refer to geese, ducks, and pheasants (such as guinea fowl), not the wild North American turkey.

Pumpkin pie would have been absent as well, since the Pilgrims had no supply of flour. (They could have made something like a pudding from boiled pumpkin sweetened with honey or syrup, however.)

Because of a poor harvest the next year (and an influx of settlers in subsequent years), the pilgrims never celebrated another Thanksgiving.

Reported at snopes dot com Urban Legends Thanksgiving.
Posted 9:18 PM by Andy (0) comments

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