Showing posts with label First Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label First Thanksgiving. Show all posts

Friday, November 6, 2020

A 19th Century New England Thanksgiving by Eileen O'Finlan

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Click here to visit Eileen O'Finlan's website

Thanksgiving figures heavily in my forthcoming novel, Erin's Children, sequel to Kelegeen. Why Thanksgiving? Why not Christmas? Erin's Children is set in Massachusetts in the 1850s. Thanksgiving was the quintessential New England holiday at that time. Sure folks had started celebrating Christmas to a degree, but it was nothing in comparison to the grandest holiday of all – Thanksgiving.

It was English Puritans who came to Massachusetts in the early 1600s bringing with them a great distaste for anything that smacked of the Church in Rome which meant December 25th was just another day on the calendar. Anyone caught celebrating Christmas could find themselves in trouble with the law. But Thanksgiving? That was a different story.

Though Puritanism had died out by the 1850s some of the Puritans' ways remained. It wasn't until the American Civil War in the 1860s and beyond that Christmas gained the foothold that would eventually catapult the holiday into the commercialized juggernaut of today. Thanksgiving, on the other hand, took pride of place in the hearts of New Englanders.

As most know, the “First Thanksgiving” took place in 1621 in Plymouth Colony with the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians sharing an autumnal harvest feast. For the following two centuries days of Thanksgiving were celebrated at various times by several of the colonies. It wasn't until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving to be held every November that it became uniform. Still, by the 1850s the holiday was pretty well set as a tradition, even to the point of always being observed on a Thursday in November. Lincoln just made it official.

Thanksgiving was a huge celebration which entailed a tremendous amount of work. Imagine the work of preparing for Thanksgiving today and multiply it by at least ten. A fresh turkey had to be purchased before dawn on Thanksgiving morning, scalded in boiling water to loosen the feathers, then plucked. The bird was beheaded, gutted, then roasted all day. As if turkey wasn't enough, a couple of chickens were often included. Mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and a multitude of pies, most of them baked weeks in advance and kept frozen in a closed off section of the house, rounded out the feast. Just thinking about the preparation and clean up makes me exhausted.

Often families traveled to spend the day – or if they traveled any real distance, several days or even a few weeks – with relatives. Or, they may have been the hosts, as are the Claprood family in Erin's Children, with relatives coming to stay with them. Not only was there the big Thanksgiving meal to prepare and enjoy, but other frolics that went on for days. In Erin's Children, Mrs. Claprood's brother and his family join them for a week at Thanksgiving. The young people are especially jolly, celebrating with sleigh rides and a taffy pull during the days following the big feast.

Here is a short snippet of the taffy pull scene in Erin's Children:

The scents of hot chocolate and taffy lured Oliver and Benjamin into the kitchen with Nancy and Ethan right behind.

“You've come at a good time,” Deborah announced. “We're ready to pull!”

Kathleen placed the baking pan on the table while Meg set the crock of butter beside it. Once each had thoroughly buttered their hands, they lifted the thickened mixture, each grabbing hold of a section. Meg and Kathleen watched as the young people stretched and pulled the taffy, then folded it in on itself to stretch and pull again. Laughter filled the room as they set themselves up in teams to see who could stretch it furthest. The combination of slippery butter and sticky molasses mixture made for plenty of adventures and a few mishaps.

“Don't you want to pull, too?” Alice asked Meg and Kathleen.

The sisters looked at each other. The thought had not crossed their minds.

“Try.” Pamela encouraged them.

Kathleen's wistful expression decided it for Meg. She held out the crock of butter to her sister who eagerly greased her hands. She and Kathleen each held an end of the taffy and began pulling. To Meg's surprise, the odd mixture of slippery and sticky along with the sweet aroma appealed. She and Kathleen were soon laughing along with the others. For a few moments she felt part of the family. When their stretch of taffy broke, the end snapping back to curl around Meg's hands, she and Kathleen dissolved in gales of laughter.

Available for Purchase on December 1, 2020


 

Monday, November 20, 2017

What Food Will be on Your Table This Thanksgiving? by J.Q. Rose


Find J.Q.'s mysteries at BWL Publishing.
Hello and welcome to the Books We Love Insiders Blog!

Thursday is Thanksgiving Day in the USA, otherwise known as Turkey Day. Turkey is traditionally served at Thanksgiving because the Pilgrims and their Wampanoag Indian guests probably shared turkey and deer at their harvest feast at the First Thanksgiving in 1621. No one knows for sure if turkey was served, but wild turkeys were abundant in the Plymouth, Massachusetts area.
Happy Turkey Day!
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
My husband, raised on a turkey farm, had his fill of turkey when a boy. He's not a turkey fan. But since it's part of the traditional meal, he'll eat turkey on that day and the day after and the day after that if we have plenty of leftovers! He's in charge of preparing and baking the festive bird.  

Historians don't believe the First Thanksgiving menu included sweet potatoes and cranberries, or even pumpkin pie. Perhaps some form of squash, but not as a pie. Sweet potatoes were not food eaten by the colonists. Cranberries may have been served, but probably not as a relish or sauce.
Cornucopia (Horn of Plenty)
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

In an article by Joanne Camas at the Epicurious site
,
 
culinary historians stated they believe "the table was loaded with native fruits like plums, melons, grapes, and cranberries, plus local vegetables such as leeks, wild onions, beans, Jerusalem artichokes, and squash. (English crops such as turnips, cabbage, parsnips, onions, carrots, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme might have also been on hand.) And for the starring dishes, there were undoubtedly native birds and game as well as the Wampanoag gift of five deer. Fish and shellfish were also likely on the groaning board."


So why do we Americans serve these traditional foods? According to the Washington Post, "In the mid-1800s, a popular magazine editor named Sarah Josepha Hale read about the 1621 feast and decided to use it as a model for an annual holiday. She published recipes for turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie and started traditions that had nothing to do with the colonists."


Click here to read the entire Washington Post article 

Do you celebrate Thanksgiving by serving the traditional Thanksgiving menu?What's on your Thanksgiving Day table? Please leave a comment below to let us know.  Thank you. 

We have a lot in common with the Pilgrims and their guests at the First Thanksgiving, not only enjoying delicious food, but also taking the time to be aware of our blessings and to be thankful for them.


Happy Thanksgiving!!


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