Thanksgiving traditions

National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation

Urban legend has it, that the very first presidential pardon, was given by Lincoln when his son was worried that his pet turkey would be eaten on Thanksgiving. In a grand public gesture, as only a loving father would do, the President pardoned the turkey. This ritual became annualized in 1945, during the office of Harry Truman. The National Turkey Federation (Yes, even turkeys have lobbyists!) presented Truman with a turkey. Sadly, these turkeys would still end up as dinner, albeit for the president and his family. It wasn't until JFK, when he let the turkey live the rest of its free life in a turkey farm. In the present time, two turkeys are given to the president. The more photogenic turkey is the official "pardoned" turkey, while the runner-up, in case the first turkey is unable to perform its turkily duties, gets stuffed and eaten. Ha ha! Just kidding! No, he gets pardoned as well. Afterwards, they get sent to Disneyland (like all our other celebrities) and become the Grand Marshall of the Turkey Parade. And you only WISH I was making that up. Since 2003, the White House provides a poll for people to name the pair of turkeys. In 2003, the pair were named "Stars and Stripes". In 2004, it was "Biscuits and Gravy". 2005 saw "Marshmallow and Yams". And this year, they will be called... (drumr0ll please!) "Flyer and Fryer".

Traditional Thanksgiving Hymn

Apparently there are quite a few Thanksgiving songs, making it the second largest holiday with themed songs. The first is obviously Veteran's Day. Or Christmas, one of the two. Anyway, here's the official Thanksgiving song that you must sing at your Thanksgiving table. If you don't, it's not a real feast. It's called, "We Gather Together". Sing along with me now!

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing,
Sing praises to His name: He forgets not his own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, wast at our side, All glory be thine!

We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,
And pray that thou still our defender wilt be.
Let thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

Started in 1924, the Macy's Department Store in Manhattan held a parade for the city. Everybody loved it, and so the heads at Macy's decided to hold one every year. During World War 2, Macy's graciously donated the rubber, used to make their balloons to the war effort, which is the only time the Parade was not held. The year after the war, 1945, it returned bigger and better than ever. The 2-mile route was established then, which is the same route followed every year thereafter. Another first was that year was the first time it was televised. Of course, only the 5 richest people in America saw that show. During this time, the parade mainly consisted of high school marching bands and lots of big balloons. It wasn't until 1969, that floats, essentially big Kleenex boxes on wheels, were invented. Presently, about 2.5 million people line the streets to watch the parade, and over 40 million watch it on TV.

Thanksgiving Feast

The centerpiece of a Thanksgiving meal is the turkey. In 2003, USDA estimates over 260 million turkeys were raised in the country, of which 1/6 were consumed on Thanksgiving Day alone. That's a lot of turkeys! That's about 43 million turkeys eaten today! Another common tradition is for the person who gets the Turkey wishbone. This lucky person will hand one end of the bone to the person sitting next to them. Each grasping one end of the bone, they pull it apart. The one with the larger end will have his wish granted. Thus, a lucky person can have up to 2 wishes granted, one from birthday and one from Thanksgiving. There was a funny Seinfeld episode about that... Anyway, the typical side dishes that accompany the Turkey are: mashed potatoes (With the skins on! I've been converted to that and believe true mashed potatoes must have skins!), New England stuffing (it MUST be from New England, anywhere else is crap!) -- which is normally stuffed inside the turkey, candied yams (it's yamerriffic!), and lastly pumpkin pie (taken from Halloween's Jack-o-Lantern).

Mmmm... talking about all this food has made me hungry. Anyway, there is one last tradition I'll talk about next week. Enjoy your holidays! I know I will, catering from Ranch 99... Yummy!