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Thanksgiving Food - The Early
Years
by Gabriella True
The last Thursday in November is a day
our nation comes together, slowing hectic lives and celebrating time-honored
traditions, a day to gather family and friends in a meal, reflecting what we
have to be thankful for, whether those things be small or large. The
Thanksgiving dinner symbolizes the bounty of good things and not just the food
that we have been blessed with. It is a day in which new immigrants and the
young learn to become part of the United States fabric while elderly and
long-standing citizens pay homage to their past history and remembrances.
Although the basic meal and celebration is similar for all, side dishes and
activities differ from family to family. In every household it is a day eagerly
anticipated, a day when waistlines become constricting and when, inevitably, at
least one guest falls asleep watching a long football game after
dinner.
People have long believed that spirits or gods controlled the
outcome of their harvest and paying homage to the harvest gods became an
important part of cultures. The Greeks honored Demeter, goddess of grains, at an
autumn festival, Thesmosphoria. The Romans held the fall festival Cerelia to
honor Ceres, goddess of corn, offering pigs and fruits to her. Harvest festivals
throughout the world continued well after the fall of the Roman Empire. In
England, The Harvest Home celebration was held in the fall after the fields had
been harvested. The Puritans transformed and brought the fall harvest
celebration to North America where it was eventually transformed into the
holiday we know today.
In 1609, the Puritans left England for Holland to
flee religious prosecution. The Puritans became worried their children would
come to adopt the ways of the Dutch, which they considered frivolous and so they
brokered a deal with the Merchant Adventurers, a group of English investors, to
provide the sea passage to America in exchange for seven years work. In America
they would be able to start their own community. When they landed, it was
November, too late to grow crops, and 50 of the original 110 survived the
subsequent harsh winter.
The Pilgrims were concerned about the local
Native Americans, but the nearby tribe was peaceful and on March 16, 1621 a
tribe-member came into their village and said to the Puritan's surprise,
"Welcome." His name was Samoset and he had learned English from fishermen off
the cost of Massachusetts. He lived in a village along with Squanto, another
native, who also spoke English and had spent some time in England after being
rescued by English slavers. Squanto taught the Pilgrims invaluable lessons about
the natural resources of their new land, teaching them how to tap the maple
trees for syrup, which plants were edible, how to grow corn since the wheat they
had brought from England would not grow in the rocky soil.
By the next
fall, the Puritans successfully harvested enough corn for storage, fruit to dry,
fish to salt and meat to cure for the long winter ahead. Governor William
Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving to be hosted by the Puritans with the
natives as their honored guests. The feast lasted three days with games and
displays of hunting skill. During the following year a bountiful harvest was not
produced so Thanksgiving was not held. The third year, there was a severe
drought and Bradford declared a day of fasting and praying; shortly thereafter
it rained and a day of thanksgiving was proclaimed. These original Thanksgivings
and subsequent ones held by the Puritans were holy days. In addition to the food
and games, most of the day was spent in church service. The Puritans had long
since abandoned celebrating many typical Christian holidays such as the saints
days and Christmas which they rejected for being as blasphemous as holidays with
pagan roots like Harvest Home. The Puritans believed ritual honoring of
individuals served only to legitimize an ecclesiastical hierarchy, something
fundamentally un-Christian. Thanksgivings, however, eased the human need for
celebration and joy while respecting their strict religious beliefs. The holiday
of Thanksgiving spread throughout the thirteen colonies and was heartily adopted
by other Puritans and immigrants who had traveled across the seas to find a new
life. Although people had long given thanks and held harvest festivals, these
celebrations became the first true North American holiday.
The first
Thanksgivings were not well documented so it is not precisely known what was
served. The dinner was more than likely eaten outdoors since no building would
have been big enough to accommodate all of the Puritans and the 90 tribe-members
present. The menu probably included fish, shellfish, dried fruit, corn, berries,
fowl and venison. Since it was the British who were in charge of cooking the
meal, it can be safely assumed that they adapted their cuisine to use these new
foods. Thirteen Pilgrim women were responsible for all of the cooking. British
cooking placed the emphasis on meats, both game and fowl, while wheat or corn
products and fruits were less important. Sweet foods were rare and would have
only been prepared for special banquets such as Thanksgiving. Venison would have
been the main game meat for the meal and, as Edward Winslow documented in 1621,
the tribe had brought five deer to the feast. The fowl would have included
geese, ducks, perhaps a swan and a wild turkey, quite small compared with
today's average size. Some spices, reserved from the Mayflower voyage, would
have been added to the dishes presented to the more important people at the
dinner. There were no dairy products, as cows had not yet been brought over from
Europe. Every dish, sweet or savory, would have been served at the same time,
not in courses. By the 1640's, Thanksgivings across New England were proclaimed
almost yearly but not without debate. Some ministers and governors felt that
yearly celebrations would instill a feeling of overconfidence in God's
generosity. By the 1660's, Thanksgivings were firmly rooted in society and no
governor tried to exclude the day from the calendar.
The day was still
arranged around a series of church services. By the early 1700's, many
communities ceased the afternoon service so people did not have to walk miles in
the cold four times in one day. Since there was more time not dedicated to
prayer or work, games, dancing, ice skating, and sport became an integral part
of the afternoon. Later, as people began to move far and wide throughout the
colonies, the annual pilgrimage home began to take form.
Outside New
England, Thanksgiving was not widely celebrated. As the dinner portion of the
day grew in importance and the harvest was usually bountiful, more pies were
baked and more meats were roasted. Since the early Colonialists did not
celebrate Christmas, some of the usual treats were sorely missed and so plum
pudding and mince pies became an essential part of the Thanksgiving menu, just
as turkey pie and pumpkin pie had become. In 1705, the town of Colchester,
Connecticut postponed Thanksgiving in order to wait for a shipment of molasses
so the indispensable pumpkin pie could be made.
Thanksgiving
proclamations became vehicles for governors and ministers to endorse the
Revolutionary War and the preservation of rights. In 1777, a national day of
Thanksgiving was proclaimed for the 13 colonies after the colonial army defeated
General John Burgoyne in the Hudson Valley. This put Thanksgiving well on its
way to becoming an annual holiday. Even during the height of the Revolution when
many families had to do without certain foods, Thanksgiving was celebrated from
New Hampshire to Georgia. Because of the war colonialists had no access to
raisins for mince pie or beef for roasts. But celery was just being introduced
to the colonies from England and it was one of the first vegetables to be eaten
raw.
A 1779 letter from a schoolgirl in Boston reads, All the baking of
pies and cakes was done at our house and we had the big oven heated and filled
twice each day for three days before it was all done, and everything was Good,
though we did have to do without some things that ought to be used. Neither Love
nor Money could buy Raisins, but our good red cherries dried without the pits
did almost as well . . Of course we could have no Roast Beef. None of us have
tasted any beef this three years back. . . But, Mayquittymaw's Hunters were
able to get us a fine red Deer, so that we had a good haunch of venison on each
Table. These were balanced by huge Chines of Roast Pork at the other ends of the
Tables. Then there was one big Roast Turkey and on the other a Goose and two big
Pigeon Pasties [pies]. Then there was an abundance of good vegetables of all the
old Sorts and which I do not believe you have yet seen. . . It is called Sellery
[celery] and you eat it without cooking."
About Gabriella True
Gabriella True from New York/California
writes articles on France, Holidays and Food for www.splendidpalate.com
and other websites. She can be contacted at gabriella@splendidpalate.com.
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