How Thanksgiving Works

Is it? I thought that made me a big nerd. No, No, that's it was a cool movie and everybody should know about it. Um So turkeys turkeys, Yes, let's I'm not saying it. Say it. No, let's talk turkey. Okay, so we are talking turkey. Um it's almost Thanksgiving and I'm I'm getting a little hungry. Yeah, it's my favorite holiday. Yeah? Is it really? That's weird? Is it? Yeah? What's yours? Harbor Day? Flying Day? No? Really? Thanksgivings your favorite holiday? Why? Well?

I enjoyed the rituals of the football. I like the meal. I like the sentiment behind it, giving thanks and being thankful. What about presents? You get no presents on Thanksgiving? My present is being off work for a few days and laying around and drinking. Uh, that is the gift that keeps on giving. That's great. I had no idea, Chucking and fantastic. You were the first person I've ever met whose favorite holidays Thanksgiving. That's cool, Get out more. My

collection is growing more replete. What's your favorite holiday though? Christmas? Really? Oh yeah, I like Christmas too, But there's a whole, you know, shopping thing and the greed of the companies, it's all. It taints it a bit, in my opinion. The greed is only it only goes as far as you let it. You know, if you buy somebody at present you think is appropriate and not too excessive, they're not gonna like shove it back in your face. And so you take this back and double what you paid

for it. Right. I just mean more along the lines of the consumerism as a whole, I understand. But yeah, I'm not. I'm off my soapbox. Well let's let's get back to Chuck's favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. And um, actually everything you know about Thanksgiving is wrong me, everybody, everybody, most people right, well, actually I shouldn't say most things. You know, those elementary school pageants that. You know, a lot of us are gonna be forced to go watch this season

sure or have seen already. Scarily enough, those are actually fairly accurate as far as the uh, the Pilgrims and the Native Americans sitting down together. Yeah, that is very much the bare bones of the story, right. The wardrobe is off. Apparently no buckles. Pilgrims didn't wear the they don't look like the Quaker road sky or they apparently they only wore black and white on Sunday. And the buckles again didn't come into fashion until about fifty or

sixty years later, much later. Yeah, um, so the buckles. You you almost never saw a um you know, the cartoon turkeys dressed like a pilgrim. Very rarely did you see that in North America in the seventeenth century. Um, I've been working on that one. It gets no laughs. Ever, you want to repeat it, we'll move on. It might be funny at the second time. So, yeah, there was there was a guy named Squantu, There were Puritans, settlers, ok, the Pilgrims, and they did sit down for a feast,

and they landed on Plymouth Rock. Yeah, there was a lot more to the story, though, all right, so you want me to give you a little background here, Okay. So basically the Puritans, and it wasn't just the Puritans who settled Plymouth. Um, there was actually another group called the Strangers who thought the Puritans were complete religious wackos. Oh. Yeah, they did not really get along very well. Um, but they were all in it together. They called themselves the Strangers.

Uh no, I think the Puritans called them the Strangers. Yeah. A lot of them were Catholic. Yeah. Um, so they all they were all in it together because they were all in deep, really really big trouble. When they landed, it was November, so they showed up just in time for a harsh northeastern winter. Um. And in the first four months, forty eight of the first of the original hundred people died. We're talking dying of exposure, of starvation,

like horrible ways to die. And the people who survived the winner weren't much better off than the ones who died. They still had no idea what they were doing, Like they brought some types of grain with them that wouldn't grow in North America. Um, I didn't know what they were getting into it all. No, No, they wouldn't have said, hey, let's land in Massachusetts in November. I bet it's nice exactly. Um, So there was one big stroke of luck that would

actually prove to be enormous luck. Um. They found a deserted um wapa noag settlement called Pawtucket. Pawtucket actually a band in his bad word, it's um. Actually it was deserted because pretty much the entire population had been decimated by smallpox, which was courtesy of um English explorers and traders who had come through and said, hey, and here's some smallpox. So um it was. It was abandoned. It was deserted. There's no one living there, basically just bones

laying around, but the structures were still there. So the pilgrims move into this village. It just so happens that a guy named Squanto had grown That was his home village, that's where he'd grown up. But he wasn't there when the smallpox hit, or else he would have likely died

with everybody else. He was actually in England. There was a depending on who you ask, he was either sponsored by an English trader and sent to England to be educated, or he was shipped to England as a slave which a lot of people don't know this, but the Puritans actually helped set off the slave trade in North America before we visited Africa. We used Native Americans as slaves, and we shipped him back to England commonly um. Either way, Squanto was educated in England and he'd been away from

several years. He comes home to his home village to find a bunch of white people squatting there. But it just so happens that the group of white people are starving around the verge of death, and all of a sudden, one of the handful of Native Americans who can speak English in in on the North American continent at that time, show up out of the wilderness and says, let me help.

That's crazy how it worked out like that, Well, you can imagine the Puritans viewed this as they viewed Squanto as being sent by God, which actually ended up justifying centuries of you know, genocide and all that, um, because we were meant to be here clearly, And you kind of have to wonder that if um Squanto had been given a flash of the future, would he have helped you know, I mean, sure we have internet and mental cigarettes,

but at what cost? You know, it makes you wonder if he would have just kind of walked away back into the woods like good luck, those fifty may have died and uh changed the course of you know, American history for revocably. Yeah. So, um he helps him. He basically teaches the Puritans how to survive in North America, how to farm, what to grow get corn, corn big one huge, which we both know is enormous. And um, let's see how to hunt deer, how to harvest shellfish, um,

and that from maple trees. So he he, he saves this group of people. And UM it is true that out of respect for his help, and by this time Squanto had been adopted by or absorbed into a nearby Wapanoag tribe. UM, so out of gratitude, they invited Squanto and his family for a celebratory feast, which was the first Thanksgiving exactly. And that's the one that you'll see in elementary schools around the country this November. And UH historians think that um it actually did take place in

the fall, so that that much is on part. It's not probably not what in the fourth Thursday and Thanksgiving. And I doubt if they watched the New football or maybe they did sports were involved. Yeah, uh, and they said they probably based the the dinner on the Native American meal plan, which I did a little research into that. And if you want to honor your our Native American friends here and this Thanksgiving, then you can sit down and have a traditional Native American meal of a bean soups,

fried mash nice not quite sure what that is. I think, uh, smushed corn with public milk, and it sounds good. You can roast yourself a rabbit and uh chow down on some mutton stew and a little sheep's head and I would eat all that. I would try. Sheep's head I never have, but I would happily eat all the rest of it. Yeah, and that that would be a traditional or you know those foods are traditional Native American foods. Yeah,

there was, there's one. And and like Chuck said, the this this much more, this first Thanksgiving much more followed the Native Americans tradition of Thanksgiving. Um. Had it followed the Puritans version of Thanksgiving, there would have been a lot of um praying and not dancing and basically just standing around being very solemn um. And the Puritans had

days of Thanksgiving like crazy. Um, the Native Americans in the northeast, the Algonquin speaking people's they celebrated six times a year, and one of them was the harvest, which is actually found world round. Yeah, the bunch of ancient cultures and recent cultures celebrated harvest Thanksgiving. Yeah, so um, that's that's actually kind of what we do today. We still kind of celebrated a little more like the the

Indian version than the Puritan version. So um, that's the story of the First Thanksgiving and basically it led to I've read I've read analysis on it, and people speculate that the Puritans were grateful, but at the same time they did see Squanto sent by God like he had no choice in it. And ultimately they were kind of getting along because they were about the only English in the area and that they were vastly outnumbered by the

Native Americans. Well, within twenty years, the children of both of these groups who were seated at the First Thanksgiving dinner were murdering one another in King Philip's War, And that was the beginning of that. Right, So let's flash

forward a little bit show to the official Thanksgivings. Yeah, the way we recognize that right, Well, if you're talking about officially recognized George Washington started at, Yeah, that's the sporadic Thanksgiving celebrations that marked actually, sadly, a lot of them marked um victories over Native trial vibes. Um, and considering how things got started, it's that's quite a kick

in the face. Yeah. Ultimately, if you are descended from a immigrant from the East, specifically European immigrant, and you're here in the US and you celebrate Thanksgiving, sadly, what you're really giving thanks for is being on the winning side. You know. Um, the Native Americans don't necessarily take thanks Giving the same way that people of Anglo descent or European descent in general do. Um. There's actually a day of morning that they celebrate near Plymouth. Yes, just to

drive the point home. Yeah, they didn't land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on them, right, that's the saying. So. Yeah, but our modern version of Thanksgiving actually comes from a magazine editor. Right now, Chuck was saying, George Washington, he said, let's just consolidate all these Thanksgiving days into one. It didn't really take off, though, but he was the he was the first one to say it. A magazine editor

named Sarah hale Um started this to writing campaign. Now, she had actually come across the two surviving documents that described the first Thanksgiving, so she got some of it's pretty cool, um, but she really romanticized it and embellished it, um, and gave us what we think of when we think of Thanksgiving today, you know, and what the little kids in elementary school are putting on It all basically came from this magazine editor's imagination. Um. Take pumpkin pies for example,

I love too, I love pumpkin pie. I do too, and I'm grateful that they're part of the Thanksgiving and I'm thankful for it. Um. But did you know that there was literally impossible that pumpkin pies were part of the first Thanksgiving. Do you wanna know why? My guess would be that there were no pumpkins. There were pumpkins, pumpkins are kind of squashed, and there was no native to North America. There was pie, but Europeans knew how

to make pie, So what's the problem. Not They probably didn't have the flour, they probably didn't have the milk. Even if they did, Still, a year after they'd been there, the pilar him his head and managed to build a functioning oven yet, right, so it's literally impossible that they had pies. And I know they didn't have the cool whip to doll up on top. Definitely not oil or cream, right, yeah, cream,

that's my that's my vote. Agreed. So Lincoln ratifies UH and makes it the really official every day he I think he made it the last day of I think he made it the last day of November. But it was from Sarah Hale, from Sarah Hale's letter writing campaign. And then the Thursday thing came along. I think Franklin Roosevelt moved it up a week and I love this part. He They actually started calling it Frank's Giving. It's just to kind of chide him a little bit because he

changed it up. Yeah, why did he UH? For Christmas shopping? And he did it because the big national retailers were lobbying him to extend the Christmas shopping season, right, I did. Should we talk about turkey? Let's talk, yes about about turkey. I know you refused to say talk turkey. I love it. Turkey was not a part of Thanksgiving. Initially they pretty much said that, correct, It was most likely venison or some other sort of foul. One there another, there was foul.

And actually, at the time, if you talked to a Puritan about turkey, they would have that that actually characterized any kind of foul. So even if they did use the word turkey, which they didn't, it could mean anything. But there probably were like ducks and geese on the table.

And we know there was also cranberry too. Yeah, which is one thing that still holds true today, which is nice to go ahead with the turkey, Chuck, Well, Turkey was not a part back then, but it very much is now of Americans now eat Thanksgiving on turkey, and I would imagine the tim person who don't. A lot of those are probably vegetarian. I can't imagine you would choose another meat if you're not a vegetarian other than turkey,

So you have to be some sort of communists. Yeah, if we have listeners out there who do who are not vegetarian and who opt for steak on Thanksgiving, I'd love to hear from you. Yes, I'd be very cool. But to furkey is what the vegetarians I prefer because they like to keep it real, keep it traditions. Anyone really prefer to furkey or is it done out of

some sort of obligation? Do you think uh? Like I said, I think it's trying to keep up with the tradition while still maintaining the ethics that the vegetarians hold understood, that's my that's my guess, understand, And I think we shoul talking about football. Wait, hold on, I got more on turkey. Okay. First of all, we're expected to be forty six million turkeys this year for Thanksgiving, Alan wowellion pounds.

It's a lot of turkey. And while we're still on the topic of turkey, can I tell you one more thing? All right? So you know how a trip to fan makes you sleepy? Yes, that's not the case. Trip to fan that you should explain as a chemical in turkey? Correct, that supposedly makes you sleepy, and actually it does encourage the production of saratonin, which is a calming agent on the nervous system. The problem is this trip to fan

is effective pretty much only on an empty stomach. Okay, So they said, well, what is it about the turkey that makes you sleepy? It's not the turkey a loan, it's actually the meal, right, Okay, The average thing giving the serving. This isn't like the whole spread. This is what you or I are going to sit down and eat. The average meal has three thousand calories and two nine grams of fat. Wow, I looked it up, my friend.

That's the equivalent of six big Max. I was gonna say, I bet you're gonna put it in big Mac terms. I knew that was coming back. Is like, it should be a standard measure seven six six. Yeah, it's actually calorie wise, it's about five big Max. Fat gram wise, it's about six big mas. Um. That would make me sleepy if I ate six big macs exactly. The digestion chuck. You and I we know and love the fight or

flight response, right. Do you remember when when when you're faced with danger, digestion stops and everything Well, this is the exact opposite. Everything else slows down, so your stomach can be like, oh, I have to get rid of this because it's a carved, heavy meal. And actually with that, with three thousand calories and two and twenty nine fat grams, we would have to run in a moderate pace for

four straight hours to burn that off. And we don't do that, you know, we don't instead, as Chuck was saying, watch football. Yes, even people who don't like football. Many times we'll watch football on Thanksgiving for the tradition of it. I love football, I love the NFL. I love the Atlanta Falcons. I'll just go ahead and say that I'm more college football guy myself. But yes, I know that's fine.

I like that too. But yeah, that's started. In UH four, the Detroit Lions played the Chicago Bears and lost in and but they lost. It was the lions first year. The Bears were the national champs, and they only lost thirteen to sixteen, So pretty good showing for a first year club, right, they only lost by three points, and uh save seven years from thirty to forty four they did not play football, And I believe it probably something to do with World War two. I didn't look it up. Yeah, probably,

but I doubt if that's coincidence. You know. I have a theory about the Lions. Actually, I think that they can never pull together a truly decent team because there's so many players out there don't want to play on Thanksgiving and don't want to play on Christmas. The Lions have to play on both days almost every year. Robbing their families of fun. Uh. And the Cowboys are the other team that aditionally plays and they started at that tradition in nine six. They were Johnny Come Lately, Johnny

Come Lately, and UH. A couple of more things here. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is is I don't I don't watch it, which is, UM, I'm just not a big parade guy. But if you're ever in New York City, here's a little tip around Thanksgiving. One thing that's really fun to do. My wife and I did it one year is to go the day before the Thanksgiving Day parade and watch the the balloons being blown up. You just walk around Central Park. They're out there, got the

streets closed down, they're blowing up. You know, you see kermit on the ground. They're blowing them up, and there's just kids everywhere and parents everywhere, and uh, it's a delight. And it's not just the mob scene of the actual parade. I think it's a lot more fun. And that's Chuck's recommendation for New York City. Yeah, and I've learned over time that, um, following Chuck around can yield some pretty cool adventures. You could see Thanksgiving Day parade, balloons being

blown up. You might run into Tony Shalub. You could find a severed head in a bucket. There's all sorts of crazy stuff that happens. Been showing. I sound much more interesting when I start naming these things out loud. Yeah, so chucky, You got anything else? Uh No, that's it, It's my favorite. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving

this year. Yeah, Happy Thanksgiving. Remember with the stuff turkey, that's twenty two to twenty four minutes per pound at three right, if you don't go to the trouble of stuff in your your turkey, just knock that down to eighteen to twenty minutes per pound at the same temperature. Or you could just forego all that and sit down

to a plate of six big max. Yeah, same result, right, exactly. Well, until then, Happy Thanksgiving, and remember the reason for this season as to give thanks for things you have in your life. Now it's a busy day. There's football, there's food, there's fun. Take a short time reflect on things, and don't forget about the vanquished. For more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com? Let us know what you think, Send an email to

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