The History of Thanksgiving in America

The Pilgrims’ Menu at the first Thanksgiving?
Based on what we know of life at the Plimoth Plantation, we can speculate that the following foods may have been on the menu:
Seafood: Cod, Eel, Clams, Lobster, Whale
Wild Fowl: Wild Turkey, Goose, Duck, Crane, Swan, Partridge, Eagles
Meat: Venison, Seal
Grain: Wheat Flour, Indian Corn
Vegetables: Pumpkin, Peas, Beans, Onions, Lettuce, Radishes, Carrots
Fruit: Plums, Grapes
Nuts: Walnuts, Chestnuts, Acorns
Herbs and Seasonings: Olive Oil, Liverwort, Leeks, Dried Currants, Parsnips

What Was Not on the Menu
Surprisingly, the following foods, all considered staples of the modern Thanksgiving meal, didn’t appear on the pilgrims’ first feast table, for various reasons.
Ham: There is no evidence that the colonists had butchered a pig by this time, though they had brought pigs with them from England.
Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes: These were not common at the time, being more of a South American or African tuber at this period.
Corn on the Cob: Corn was kept dried out at this time of year, not eaten fresh.
Cranberry Sauce: The colonists had cranberries, but no sugar at this time.
Pumpkin Pie: It’s not a recipe that existed at this point, though the pilgrims had recipes for stewed pumpkin.
Chicken/Eggs: We know that the colonists brought hens with them from England, but it’s unknown how many they had left at this point, or whether the hens were still laying.
Milk: No cows had been aboard the Mayflower, though it’s possible that the colonists used goat milk to make cheese.

In addition to being great writers, many of our romance authors are fabulous cooks. So here are some handy hints and tips, just in time for Thanksgiving.

After a big Thanksgiving meal, many people end up with quite a bit of extra turkey. Nibbling on leftovers is fine, but here are some additional healthy ways to use that leftover turkey, so one day of eating excess does not turn into several days of stuffing yourself with stuffing.

First of all, if you are watching your weight, make sure you serve lots of veggies, and eat only the white meat.

Secondly, make sure, if you have guests over, to send the lion’s share of the leftovers home with THEM, so you are not tempted to overeat for several more meals.

But, having said that, if you have cooked a sumptuous turkey breast, it is good lean protein you can enjoy. Here are some ideas:

Sandwiches

This is our family favorite. Simply slather mayonnaise on your favorite bread and add turkey. Enjoy! Of course, you can make this sandwich fancier by using toasted garlic bread, or adding some seasonings to the mayonnaise.

You can quickly whip up some gourmet style mayo by adding some of the packaged ranch dressing mix to it.

Instead of regular sliced bread, make turkey sandwiches with fresh Italian bread, hogies, wraps, or ciabata bread for a different taste.

Open Faced Turkey Sandwich

Start with some really good toast. Rub a little garlic or butter on it if you’d like. Then, lay slices of turkey on it and cover with gravy. Heat up some left over stuffing and stick it in the toaster oven or your regular oven to give it a nice little crust and dinner is ready.

Turkey and Rice Soup

If you cooked a whole turkey, use the leftover bones from the turkey and throw them in a large stock pot. Cover them with plenty of water and add some onion, celery, carrot and salt and pepper. Bring it to a boil and boil for about 45 min.

Strain out the liquid, return it to the pot, add some rice and leftover pieces of turkey. Add any vegetables you like as well and cook until the rice and veggies are tender. Then eat some, and freeze the rest-remember that the dark meat has 3 times more fat per ounce than white meat turkey.

The History of Thanksgiving in America 1

The most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving took place in Plimouth [Plymouth] Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, in 1621.

Sarah Josepha Hale, the enormously influential magazine editor and author who waged a tireless campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in the mid-19th century, was also the author of the classic nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

More than 200 years after the first Thanksgiving, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving.

Congress finally made Thanksgiving Day an official national holiday in 1941.

Many people also get the day after, Thanksgiving Friday, also known as Black Friday, as an additional holiday.

It is called Black Friday because many retailers hope to be out of the red and into the black thanks to consumer shopping on this day.

The History of Halloween Part 2

There were a number of traditions in the Celtic world which were used around the time of the Halloween festivities.

Salt might be sprinkled on the visiting children to ward off evil spirits. Others might be given a lump of coal and a bit of bread, with the wish that they might never be hungry or cold. This is actually now part of the Manx New Year’s celebration in the Isle of Man.

Carving turnips as ghoulish faces to hold candles became a popular part of the festival, which has been adapted to carving pumpkins in America. Or you can even paint a pumpkin now, so that it does not spoil so quickly as a carved pumpkin.

To learn how to paint your pumpkin, you can visit:
Learn How Here: Pumpkin Painting

The trick aspect to trick or treating as it emerged in North America seems to have more obscure origins. It may be a merging of the collection of treats with another separate old tradition, especially in Ireland, where children would sometimes engage in secretive mischief at Halloween.

The original intention was for the activities of mischievous Halloween spirits to be blamed. Usually the mischief consisted of playing some minor or witty tricks on – often the less popular ones. Pranks like moving things or hiding everyday items during Halloween night were set to give merriment to everyone in on the joke.

In times past, a refusal to give something when requested during trick or treating may have resulted in the prank, which was not always carried out in a spirit of good fun. Tossing eggs or flour at the house, or hiding someone’s livestock, were common pranks. In most places today, the trick aspect of trick or treating now survives more as a ritual than any real threat.

In Scotland and England, the tradition of singing or other entertainment in return for the gifts collected was more common than the threat of a trick if nothing was given. That later seemed to have given rise to Christmas carols.

In Ireland, an apple tart is often baked containing little gifts like a ring, rather like the king cakes at Mardi Gras in Louisiana. The person who finds the ring or crown, or other special token, gets to be queen and king for the day.

Associations with the harvest festival are also obvious in terms of sharing food and bestowing bounty. Traditionally, nuts, and apples and other seasonal fruits would be shared. Now you can hardly escape from candy (also at Christmas and Easter!)

Telling scary stories around the fire, decorating pumpkins, making your own scarecrow, and dressing up are inexpensive traditions you can do with family and friends to make yourHalloween memorable without buying a ton of things.

One thing is for sure, Halloween has been celebrated for many centuries, and it is actually gaining in popularity as a secular holiday which the whole community can participate in. And it is a great excuse to dress up!

For quick and easy dress up ideas, like a 1920s flapper dress you can make in an hour, and more.
Great costume ideas

A horror story to creep you out for Halloween!

Click to read more: Phobia by Shanna Murchison.

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Halloween is a traditional celebration held on October 31st. Today, Halloween is an excuse for Halloween theme costume parties, and entertainment with horror films, haunted houses and other activities around the popular spooky themes of ghosts, witches, Dracula, werewolves and other aspects of the supernatural.

Children love to dress up in Halloween costumes and go from door-to-door in their neighborhood following the old tradition of trick-or-treating, collecting sweets and gifts, sometimes money, as a way of warding off bad luck for the people giving, and the people receiving.

Halloween began as an ancient Celtic festival in Great Britain and Ireland, the festival of Samhain (pronounced SOW-ann), which was the druids’ New Year’s festival.

In addition to being the Celtic new year, it also marked the time when it was believed that people could commune with the souls of the dead, hence its later association with All Saint’s and All Soul’s Days on November 1st and 2nd in the Gregorian calendar.

A vigil for the festival of All Saints was held on All Hallows Evening on October 31. In the vernacular of the times, All Hallows Evening became Hallowe’en and later the Halloween we know today.

The observation of Halloween has survived most strongly among the Celtic descendants, the Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Manx communities, and through the Irish in particular, Halloween traditions were brought to America.

Halloween has gained in popularity in the past few decades, and has now become the second biggest shopping holiday in the USA.

In turn, as part of American pop culture, Halloween has spread in popularity to most corners of the English speaking western world, and increasingly into Western Europe in recent times

The celebration of Halloween survived most strongly in Ireland. It marked an end of harvest festival, and was often celebrated in each community with a bonfire to ward off the evil spirits.

Children would go from door to door in disguise as creatures from the underworld to collect treats, mainly fruit, nuts and the like for the festivities.

These were used for playing traditional games like eating an apple on a string or bobbing for apples and other gifts in a basin of water, without using your hands.