Turkey Not Originally Part of Thanksgiving

Adoptaturkey.org has shocking evidence that turkey, the very centerpiece of most American Thanksgiving dinners, was not part of the original Thanksgiving meal.

From their website, they state that the very idea of turkey as symbolic of the Thanksgiving meal is as contrived as the notion that the holiday was initiated to celebrate the Pilgrims' good fortune after landing at Plymouth Rock. It is far from conclusive that turkey was even consumed at the 1621 feast, which, according to the only two, known, first-hand accounts of the feast, featured "many fowle and five deere." Turkey is never specifically mentioned in these accounts, and another such celebration feast would not be seen in the colonies for at least fifty years.

When a movement began to formalize the concept of a holiday centered around the giving of thanks, consensus was hard to come by. The first official, presidential announcement of a thanks-giving holiday came in 1789 from George Washington, who put aside a day on October 2 to celebrate the Constitution-- more than 150 years after the Pilgrim's fall feast. In 1798, President John Adams set aside May 9 as "a time for fervent thanksgiving."

Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, opposed the idea of a thanks-giving day, because he considered proclaiming holidays "a monarchical practice." Subsequently, another national thanks-giving celebration in the U.S. was not seen for 60 years.

Thanks in large part to the efforts of Sara Josepha Hale, an editor of a popular women's magazine, the holiday was revived in 1863. Every fall, she published endless editorials and recipes (most featuring turkey) in her magazine and wrote hundreds of letters advocating the concept. In an 1861 plea to President Abraham Lincoln, she wrote of the importance of a day to "lay aside our enmities on this one day and join in a Thanksgiving Day of peace."

In 1863, after more than 30 years of lobbying, Sara Josepha Hale had her wish granted when Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday. According to University of Michigan anthropology professor Richard Ford, at that time, ". . . there were many different foods that could be served and it is from this time period that our typical dinner foods derive."

In 1896, the first edition of Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book recommended that the day be celebrated with foods that symbolically connoted "Pilgrim."

During this time period, which was prior to the invention of the icebox, it is thought that farmers usually killed their turkey flock in the fall, because cool weather better staved off the natural decomposition of the animal's flesh. Because the Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays coincided with this time of year, this may have facilitated the push for turkey consumption during Thanksgiving feasts.

In 1986, Farm Sanctuary began its annual Adopt-A-Turkey Project. This unique effort has saved thousands of turkeys from the slaughterhouse, and encouraged millions of people to be kind to animals. This Thanksgiving, hundreds of families are feeding turkeys, instead of eating them, by adopting feathered friends who live at Farm Sanctuary.

Special holiday celebrations are held at Farm Sanctuary’s shelters in Watkins Glen, NY, and Orland, CA, where turkeys are the guests of honor, not the main course. Farm Sanctuary staff and volunteers prepare a buffet of squash, cranberries, pumpkin pie, and other vegetarian treats, and the turkeys have the pleasure of stuffing themselves.

To visit their website, and learn more about their program, please click here: http://www.adoptaturkey.org