THANKSGIVING. This Thursday, November 24, 2022, Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving. On the menu ? Turkey “of course”! Origin, history, tradition… Here is the main information to know to shine in society.
[Mis à jour le 24 novembre 2022 à 13h41] Thanksgiving revolves around sharing an XXL turkey with the family, accompanied by tasty dishes such as the well-known pumpkin pie. If this rite was established, it is to commemorate the help given by the Indians to the colonists of the Mayflower in 1621…, the first European pilgrims. Today, Thanksgiving is also a ceremony at the White House, where two turkeys are pardoned. Explanations on its origins and its date, recipe for a turkey-based meal or the subtleties of tradition… (Re)discover Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is about thanking God and the harvest. But if the day of thanksgiving marked by Thanksgiving celebrates divine help and a fertile land, it also honors the happiness of all kinds received during the year. This national holiday is also rooted in history. In 1621, the first European pilgrims or settlers of the Mayflower established this rite to thank the Indians. The latter came to the aid of British religious dissidents, alias “Pilgrims”, in their installation at the gates of Cape Cod (Massachusetts): they taught them how to hunt and harvest corn. Today, through Thanksgiving, Americans continue to thank God for having favored the installation of their first colony in the 17th century. The key: a festive, family and convivial moment around a traditional dinner with the air of the end of the year celebrations.
According to the site frenchofamerica.com, Indians from the local Wanpanoag tribe – who had taught the Pilgrims to cultivate the land – were invited to the festivities in what is now Plymouth. in 1621. It was the first Thanksgiving. It lasted 3 days! Including “lobster, chestnuts, onion, leeks, dried fruits, cabbage, carrots, chicken, rabbit, honey and maple syrup”, the first Thanksgiving banquet would have contained neither mashed potatoes, nor pumpkin pie, nor even corn on the cob, which are essential today (read below).
It took until 1863 for Abraham Lincoln to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. Also according to Frenchinfoamerica.com, it was the American author of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, Sarah Josepha Hale, who would have suggested this idea to the 16th President of the United States. “Why the fourth Thursday in November?” you might be wondering now. It’s like that. However, the timing of this holiday serves the US economy by boosting household consumption. However, this day of great family gathering was not officially declared a “legal holiday” by Congress until 1941.
About 45 million turkeys are eaten each year to celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States. According to the Journal du Net, economists even consider this figure as “a good indicator of the morale of American households” ! Gallinaceans owe this craze for their flesh to the fact that they were, according to legend, on the menu of the first Thanksgiving… and, nowadays, at an almost unbeatable value for money. Did you know that turkeys raised to be sold and eaten on Thanksgiving cannot fly (thus escape)? But every year, the President of the United States pardons at least one. The tradition goes back to Kennedy, who saved one by compassion. For the lucky ones, it is the guarantee of ending their quiet days on the farm.
Preparing a Thanksgiving turkey cannot be improvised. On a table in autumn colors dotted with warm candlesticks, we invite you to present one that you have made in the purest Anglo-Saxon tradition. On Journaldesfemmes.com, Sophie Le Menestrel explains to you how to prepare it. The one who celebrates Thanksgiving every year with her Franco-American family, for example, insists on the size of the turkey, which must be plentiful in order to bring people together around the table. Another crucial detail : “baste the poultry well during cooking to prevent it from drying out”. The correct method is to coat the turkey with softened butter, then make a broth with the offal and baste the chicken every twenty minutes with apple juice, the broth and the juice released by cooking. “You will see, the apple juice caramelizes the skin and the flesh of your turkey will be very soft!” Reassures the stove coach.
On the news webzine Jolpress.com, Joseph Smallhoover gives his opinion on the “Thanksgiving” ritual. Expatriated for 28 years in France, the director of the American Club of Paris speaks of a “party that brings together”: “More important than 4 July, the national day of the United States or even ChristmasThanksgiving is a family holiday that brings together a lot of people. It is not linked to any political or religious event, so everyone can join. It is therefore in a festive context that Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists celebrate this event.
Celebrating Thanksgiving, a custom now called into question…
Since 2020, Americans have been questioning Thanksgiving, noted the New York Times during one of the last editions of the “pumpkin party”, in an article translated by International mail. On the other side of the Atlantic, more and more citizens seem to be ready to look at the traditional festival from another angle, and, analyzes the newspaper, “to face up to the abuses suffered by indigenous peoples throughout history”, which “Amerindian activists welcome”. Robert Magnan, Amerindian, is at the head of the hunting expedition of Fort Peck (an Indian reservation), which symbolically aims to thank the bison. He testifies in particular: “Thanksgiving, for the Amerindian peoples, it is a bit like the columbus day [qui commémore l’arrivée de Christophe Colomb dans le Nouveau Monde]. Why celebrate the memory of people who tried to destroy us?
At the end of the 19th century, the New York Times recalls, white settlers massacred the bison, and the government sought to expropriate the Native Americans, who depended on these same bison to survive. The article states: “Myths about the founding of the United States have significantly downplayed the brutality of settler expansion in the Great Plains and the West.” The Thanksgiving tradition is based, among other things, on the story of a meal that sealed the friendship between Native Americans and white settlers. A seemingly inaccurate story, as various articles dismantling the legend raise every year. In 2020, there were added debates on racial justice in the country, against the backdrop of the covid pandemic affecting marginalized communities.
For those who might be wondering, Thanksgiving is not celebrated in England. But across the Channel as in France, some Europeans celebrate Thanksgiving out of love for American culture or simple attraction for this holiday. This is the case of Mélody, Parisian by adoption, Breton and Nantes by origin, and passionate about cooking since childhood. For her, Thanksgiving is a way of getting your hands dirty in the kitchen and of celebrating Christmas before its time: “I’ve got into the habit for a few years of celebrating Thanksgiving. Not that I’m American or that I have roots across the Atlantic, in fact I so love the idea of starting the holiday season as early as November that I can no longer resist the call of turkey, cranberries and pumpkin. The opportunity to get together with the family, around a good table, like a rehearsal before Christmas“, she explains on her blog “le Boudoir gourmand.fr”. If you want to respect the singularities of tradition, consider inviting your guests at 5 p.m. at the latest and preparing a Thanksgiving turkey in the oven. the latter, it is better to anticipate: it requires more than 4 hours of cooking, and various accompaniments (puréed pumpkin, chestnuts with bacon…) “Happy thanksgiving!”.