Thanksgiving is a holiday that’s inherently loved, but also widely misunderstood. So many of us think we know this American holiday, but in reality, we simply know a story that’s been repeated enough times that we believe it’s true.
If you need some fodder for the Thanksgiving dinner table, then this blog will serve up some delectable nuggets of historical Thanksgiving truths. Enjoy!
This one is more prevalent than you might expect. In fact, I distinctly recall a family debate at Thanksgiving covering this very topic when I was very young.
Sweet potatoes and yams aren’t the same - at all. They have different tastes, different colors, and originate on entirely different continents. While some stores do call sweet potatoes yams, they’re wrong to do so. Don’t fall for the mis-marketing!
Twenty-three years before the Pilgrims held their famous feast, Texans held their own Thanksgiving to give thanks for surviving a brutal 350-mile journey to resettle from the east coast. Why this Thanksgiving didn’t stick in American lore isn’t clear, but the perils of such a journey were certainly just as terrifying as those faced on the Mayflower.
Historians knew that Pilgrims had access to turkeys and were known to eat them, but it’s unclear if the Pilgrims actually ate Turkey for Thanksgiving. Based on historical documents, there’s one main course that was far more probable for their feast - deer. Deer were plentiful in the area and far more likely to be able to feed a sufficient amount of people at a feast.
No matter what they ate, they didn’t eat it with forks. Forks didn’t become common in the American colonies until the end of the American Revolutionary War.
For more myths surrounding Thanksgiving, check out this fascinating resource from the History News Network. From everyone at Max’s, may your Thanksgiving be joyous and historically-accurate!
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