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ThanksgivingThanksgiving Day is a time to gather with family and friends to give thanks for the many blessings enjoyed by us all. However, for many, its meaning is lost. It has become simply another day for huge meals, dinner parties, get-togethers or reunions. It has become a day representing turkey dinners, cranberries, candied yams, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, family events, football & parades. Somehow Thanksgiving always recalls the past. The question is which past. For most of us, the Pilgrims and their sufferings are no more real than the thought of a cold November day without central heating. The richest part of our imagination is bounded by childhood, and when we think of an authentic, historical Thanksgiving, we tend to mean the kind of feast we ate when the adults all seemed so much bigger and wiser and funnier - a feast that is authentic right down to the Jell-O salad, if you come from the Jell-O salad part of the country. If you happen to be old enough, you celebrated Thanksgiving, as a child, in the company of adults who grew up during the Great Depression or came of age during World War II. What they tended to bring to the feast was a keen sense of gratitude. ‘When I was your age,’ the stories began, stories of deprivation that contained within them a certain wonder at the abundance the storytellers found around them - not just the richness of the table itself, but the warmth and illumination of the houses, the way they kept a dark, wet November at bay. It was hard to hear those stories without feeling a certain skepticism. If life had been that difficult, why did grown-ups enjoy talking about it so much? We often find it hard to be as thankful as we should be these days. For so many Americans, it is no longer a question of having too little or having enough. It's the difference between having too much and having way, way too much. It is too easy to forget, amid this abundance, that all across America a different kind of Great Depression is still going on. The old stories would have been told very differently - if they were told at all - if they had been tales of growing up poor in the midst of wealth. There was no shame in the collective poverty of the Great Depression. There is no shame in the poverty Americans suffer today. The shame adheres to those who do nothing to change it. Perhaps it isn't necessary to have gone hungry in order to be thankful for eating well. In a land of economic entitlement, gratitude may be almost too old-fashioned to sustain for more than this one day. But then there is something to be said for an old-fashioned holiday like this one. For a moment, we grasp how rich we are, how close we feel to the ones around us, and we give thanks before it all seems merely normal again. A friend of mine reminded me that there are plenty of things to feel thankful for beginning with our health and having our loved ones close by and continuing with the blessing of having friends and all the enriching experiences we had this past year, some more, others less enjoyable but all part of what we will come to know as our life experience. So many people don’t know what they could possibly be thankful for so I thought sharing the following with them might help get the ball rolling. I AM THANKFUL: FOR THE WIFE WHO SAYS IT'S PASTA AGAIN TONIGHT, BECAUSE SHE IS HOME WITH ME, AND NOT OUT WITH SOMEONE ELSE. FOR THE HUSBAND WHO IS ON THE SOFA BEING A COUCH POTATO, BECAUSE HE IS HOME WITH ME AND NOT OUT AT THE BARS. FOR THE TEENAGER WHO IS COMPLAINING ABOUT DOING DISHES BECAUSE IT MEANS SHE IS AT HOME, NOT ON THE STREETS. FOR THE TAXES I PAY BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM EMPLOYED. FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER A PARTY BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS. FOR THE CLOTHES THAT FIT A LITTLE TOO SNUG BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT. FOR MY SHADOW THAT WATCHES ME WORK BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM OUT IN THE SUNSHINE FOR A LAWN THAT NEEDS MOWING, WINDOWS THAT NEED CLEANING, AND GUTTERS THAT NEED FIXING BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE A HOME. FOR ALL THE COMPLAINING I HEAR ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT BECAUSE IT MEANS WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH. FOR THE PARKING SPOT I FIND AT THE FAR END OF THE PARKING LOT BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING AND I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH TRANSPORTATION. FOR MY HUGE HEATING BILL BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM WARM. FOR THE LADY IN THE STORE THAT SINGS OFF KEY BECAUSE IT MEANS I CAN HEAR. FOR THE PILE OF LAUNDRY AND IRONING BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR. FOR WEARINESS AND ACHING MUSCLES AT THE END OF THE DAY BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN CAPABLE OF WORKING HARD. FOR THE ALARM THAT GOES OFF IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS BECAUSE IT MEANS THAT I AM ALIVE. OK, now that thanks has been given, how about a Turkey joke or two? Which side of the turkey has the most feathers? … The outside A turkey farmer was always experimenting with breeding to perfect a better turkey. His family was fond of the leg portion for dinner and there were never enough legs for everyone. After many frustrating attempts, the farmer was relating the results of his efforts to his friends at the general store get together. ‘Well I finally did it! I bred a turkey that has 6 legs!’ They all asked the farmer how it tasted. … ‘I don't know’ said the farmer. ‘I never could catch the darn thing!’ And finally some History… and a tip Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving, what are its origins etc and where do we get the best party supplies and party favors for Thanksgiving? Back in 1621 the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is today known as the first Thanksgiving. There was a real spirit of celebration and overindulgence associated with the occasion and the theme was of friendship and thankfulness all around. The menu consisted mostly of venison, wild fowl, herbs, ham. The pilgrims didn't use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. They wiped their hands on large cloth napkins which they also used to pick up hot morsels of food. Salt would have been on the table at the harvest feast, and people would have sprinkled it on their food. Pepper, however, was something that they used for cooking but wasn't available on the table. In the seventeenth century, a person's social standing determined what he or she ate. The best food was placed next to the most important people. People generally ate what was closest to them. Serving in the seventeenth century was very different from serving today. People weren't served their meals individually. Foods were moved from where they were cooked onto the dining table and then people took the food from the table and ate it. Pilgrims ate food in any order they chose. Sometimes there were two courses, but each of them would contain meat, puddings, and sweets. The pilgrims probably didn't have pies or anything sweet at the harvest feast. They had brought some sugar with them on the Mayflower but by the time of the feast, the supply had dwindled. Also, they didn't have ovens so pies, cakes and breads were not possible. The food that was eaten at the harvest feast would have seemed very fatty by today’s standards, but since the pilgrims were much more active than we generally are they needed more protein than today’s average American. Heart attack was the least of their worries. They were more concerned about the plague and pox. As for their cooking, the pilgrims used many spices, including cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and dried fruit, in sauces for meats. In the seventeenth century, cooks did not use proportions or talk about teaspoons and tablespoons. Instead, they just improvised. The best way to cook things in the seventeenth century was to roast them. Among the pilgrims, someone was assigned to sit for hours at a time and turn the spit to make sure the meat was evenly done. The pilgrims main meal of the day was eaten at noon and it was called noonmeat or dinner. The housewives would spend part of their morning cooking that meal. Supper was a smaller meal that they had at the end of the day. Breakfast, tended to be leftovers from the previous day's noonmeat. In a pilgrim household, the adults sat down to eat and the children and servants waited on them. The food that the pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians ate were very similar, but their eating patterns were different. While the colonists had set eating patterns--breakfast, dinner, and supper, the Wampanoags tended to eat when they were hungry so they had pots cooking throughout the day. As for the party favors and Thanksgiving decorations… please click here to review our broad selection. |
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