The tradition of Thanksgiving has evolved over time and most of the way we see the tradition is not very accurate. Through the use of media and marketing, our views of Thanksgiving have been skewed from what actually took place at the first Thanksgiving.
In 1620, Pilgrims from Europe came to America and landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts. We all learned that they came to America to gain religious freedom but that was not the case. The Pilgrims were actually separatists and came to America to make money and ultimately establish a religious theocracy or ideology. They started to farm and they had a very successful harvest so they had a feast which we all know is the first Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims were joined by the people of the Wampanoag tribe, such as Squanto, but there was no actual invitation to the Native Americans and there is no account for this feast in Wampanoag history. The legend of Squanto is true but there is a side to his story that schools don’t teach us. Squanto was sold into slavery in Europe in 1614 but came back to America in 1619 to find that his whole tribe had died from smallpox. He met the Pilgrims two years later and could communicate with them because he had spent time in Europe being a slave. He did help the Pilgrims by teaching them how to farm and how to harvest and because of this, they had an amazing harvest so they had a feast, which is also known as, the first Thanksgiving. They ate all kinds of food at this feast but it was a very different menu than it is today. First off, there was no evidence that they had turkey, instead they feasted on deer that the Wampanoag tribe brought and there was possibly goose, duck, or turkey but nobody knows for sure. There was no pie because the Pilgrims did not have ovens, butter, or flour, and there were no sweet potatoes. They did have cornmeal, pumpkin, succotash, and cranberries. Today’s menu for Thanksgiving consists, on average, of; turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, apple pie, and pumpkin pie, all of which were not present at the first Thanksgiving. How did this become the norm?
Let’s start with how it became a national holiday. For more than 200 years Thanksgiving was not a national holiday. Lots of people would gather at different times of the year to have a feast from the harvest but nobody considered it to be a holiday until Abraham Lincoln declared it a holiday in 1863. The reason for this was because of a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale. She wrote a book called Godey’s Lady’s Book which had a whole chapter about the tradition of Thanksgiving. She also talked about how this tradition could unify the North and the South because she was tired of all of the fighting that came with the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln liked this idea and declared it as a national holiday to give thanks for the Union victories in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Confederate President Jefferson Davis did the same thing by issuing Thanksgiving Day proclamations after Confederate wins but Abraham Lincoln finally declared it as a national holiday in 1863 and from then the idea of Thanksgiving has changed in our eyes since the first Thanksgiving.
The media and marketing played a huge role in determining and setting the menu for many years. When you think of Thanksgiving now, you don’t think of eating deer or goose, instead, most of the time, you think of turkey, pies, and casseroles. The reason for this is marketing. At first, turkey wasn’t the only meat advertised. Many other meats, such as, goose, duck, and chicken, were also advertised until 1920 when turkey became the sole meat to be advertised. Because of this, marketers had created an image in our heads that turkey, pumpkin pie, and cranberry sauce had been at the first Thanksgiving which they weren’t. Marketing did a very good job at doing this because lots of companies, like Butterball, would place an ad in the paper about how to cook the best turkey for Thanksgiving. After that, nobody questioned having turkey instead of goose, chicken, or duck. Now, 88% of U.S. households have turkey on Thanksgiving and 20% of the turkey consumed each year is consumed on Thanksgiving Day. This shows that marketing and media played a huge role in creating these cultural myths that you have to have turkey and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving because that’s what the Pilgrims had.
Many myths have come out of the tradition of Thanksgiving such as what kind of food to eat but there were also some customs that we used to do but don’t continue to do now. Thanksgiving masking was very similar to trick-or-treating that occurs on Halloween. Thanksgiving masking is where costumed men would go around door to door and ask for food and/or money. This brought up the market of costume making and candy making. During this time of year, manufacturers of costumes and fake features (faces, teeth, and hands) boomed with business. They created lots of costumes but the most popular one was the beggar. Lots of children and adults would dress up as beggars and parade around the streets which led to the name Ragamuffin Day. This became a norm for a while until some people became tired of seeing beggars parade around towns so the tradition of Ragamuffin Day and Thanksgiving masking were not practiced anymore.
The media and marketing have created lots of myths with the idea of Thanksgiving that are similar to the first Thanksgiving but not at all the same. Thanksgiving is still an amazing holiday even if some aspects were skewed in some ways.
In 1620, Pilgrims from Europe came to America and landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts. We all learned that they came to America to gain religious freedom but that was not the case. The Pilgrims were actually separatists and came to America to make money and ultimately establish a religious theocracy or ideology. They started to farm and they had a very successful harvest so they had a feast which we all know is the first Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims were joined by the people of the Wampanoag tribe, such as Squanto, but there was no actual invitation to the Native Americans and there is no account for this feast in Wampanoag history. The legend of Squanto is true but there is a side to his story that schools don’t teach us. Squanto was sold into slavery in Europe in 1614 but came back to America in 1619 to find that his whole tribe had died from smallpox. He met the Pilgrims two years later and could communicate with them because he had spent time in Europe being a slave. He did help the Pilgrims by teaching them how to farm and how to harvest and because of this, they had an amazing harvest so they had a feast, which is also known as, the first Thanksgiving. They ate all kinds of food at this feast but it was a very different menu than it is today. First off, there was no evidence that they had turkey, instead they feasted on deer that the Wampanoag tribe brought and there was possibly goose, duck, or turkey but nobody knows for sure. There was no pie because the Pilgrims did not have ovens, butter, or flour, and there were no sweet potatoes. They did have cornmeal, pumpkin, succotash, and cranberries. Today’s menu for Thanksgiving consists, on average, of; turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, apple pie, and pumpkin pie, all of which were not present at the first Thanksgiving. How did this become the norm?
Let’s start with how it became a national holiday. For more than 200 years Thanksgiving was not a national holiday. Lots of people would gather at different times of the year to have a feast from the harvest but nobody considered it to be a holiday until Abraham Lincoln declared it a holiday in 1863. The reason for this was because of a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale. She wrote a book called Godey’s Lady’s Book which had a whole chapter about the tradition of Thanksgiving. She also talked about how this tradition could unify the North and the South because she was tired of all of the fighting that came with the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln liked this idea and declared it as a national holiday to give thanks for the Union victories in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Confederate President Jefferson Davis did the same thing by issuing Thanksgiving Day proclamations after Confederate wins but Abraham Lincoln finally declared it as a national holiday in 1863 and from then the idea of Thanksgiving has changed in our eyes since the first Thanksgiving.
The media and marketing played a huge role in determining and setting the menu for many years. When you think of Thanksgiving now, you don’t think of eating deer or goose, instead, most of the time, you think of turkey, pies, and casseroles. The reason for this is marketing. At first, turkey wasn’t the only meat advertised. Many other meats, such as, goose, duck, and chicken, were also advertised until 1920 when turkey became the sole meat to be advertised. Because of this, marketers had created an image in our heads that turkey, pumpkin pie, and cranberry sauce had been at the first Thanksgiving which they weren’t. Marketing did a very good job at doing this because lots of companies, like Butterball, would place an ad in the paper about how to cook the best turkey for Thanksgiving. After that, nobody questioned having turkey instead of goose, chicken, or duck. Now, 88% of U.S. households have turkey on Thanksgiving and 20% of the turkey consumed each year is consumed on Thanksgiving Day. This shows that marketing and media played a huge role in creating these cultural myths that you have to have turkey and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving because that’s what the Pilgrims had.
Many myths have come out of the tradition of Thanksgiving such as what kind of food to eat but there were also some customs that we used to do but don’t continue to do now. Thanksgiving masking was very similar to trick-or-treating that occurs on Halloween. Thanksgiving masking is where costumed men would go around door to door and ask for food and/or money. This brought up the market of costume making and candy making. During this time of year, manufacturers of costumes and fake features (faces, teeth, and hands) boomed with business. They created lots of costumes but the most popular one was the beggar. Lots of children and adults would dress up as beggars and parade around the streets which led to the name Ragamuffin Day. This became a norm for a while until some people became tired of seeing beggars parade around towns so the tradition of Ragamuffin Day and Thanksgiving masking were not practiced anymore.
The media and marketing have created lots of myths with the idea of Thanksgiving that are similar to the first Thanksgiving but not at all the same. Thanksgiving is still an amazing holiday even if some aspects were skewed in some ways.
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