It was in 1621 that 53 Plymouth colonists and 90 Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is recognized today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. In 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26. Thanksgiving is one of the most important holidays of the year for all Americans.
On October 6, 1941, both houses of the U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution fixing the traditional last-Thursday date for the holiday beginning in 1942. However, in December of that year the Senate passed an amendment to the resolution that split the difference by requiring that Thanksgiving be observed annually on the fourth Thursday of November, which was sometimes the last Thursday and sometimes (less frequently) the next to last. The amendment passed the U.S. House, and on December 26, 1941 President Roosevelt signed this bill, for the first time making the date of Thanksgiving a matter of federal law and fixing the day as the fourth Thursday of November.
Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the President of the United States with one live turkey and two dressed turkeys, in a ceremony known as the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation. In a tradition that began as a one-off joke by Ronald Reagan in 1987 and made permanent by Gearge H.W. Bush in 1989, the live turkey is "pardoned" and lives out the rest of its days on a nearby peaceful farm. There are legends that state that the "pardoning" tradition dates to the Harry Truman administration or even to an anecdote of Abraham Lincoln pardoning his son's pet turkey; both stories have been quoted in more recent presidential speeches, but neither has any evidence in the Presidential record.
However, it is Sarah Palin, beloved of all political satirists, who in 2008 managed to single-handedly up the ante on Reagan's turkey humor. Fresh off a defeat in the 2008 presidential election, Palin headed to a turkey farm in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, to pardon a local bird. In front of a live television audience, Palin delivered her prepared remarks while in the near background, turkey after innocent turkey could be clearly seen being shoved upsidedown into a funnel and having its throat sliced open! The footage is available on YouTube for those of you who can take that sort of stuff.
In the United States, certain kinds of food are traditionally served at Thanksgiving meals. Roasted turkey is usually the featured item. Stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet corn, various fall vegetables and pumpkin pie are commonly associated with Thanksgiving dinner. All of these are actually native to the Americas or were introduced as a new food source to the Europeans when they arrived. Turkey may be an exception. In his book Mayflower, Nathaniel Philbrick suggests that the Pilgrims might already have been familiar with turkey in England, even though the bird is native to the Americas. The Spaniards had brought domesticated turkeys back from Central America in the early 17th century, and the birds soon became popular fare all over Europe, including England, where turkey became a "fixture at English Christmases.
Needless to say, Thanksgiving at QUICKSWOOD is celebrated as a purely secular tradition with emphasis on things of the flesh rather than the spirit.
Josée's amazing Thanksgiving Dinner:
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