The older I get, the more I appreciate Thanksgiving. It does not the get the same fanfare as Halloween or Christmas, and, sadly, these days it is often the target of malicious political attacks by the perpetually aggrieved. The left in the United States and Canada (where the holiday is celebrated, albeit for different reasons) routinely lambast Thanksgiving as a “white supremacist” celebration of “genocide” and “colonialism.” In reality, Thanksgiving is a deeply Christian celebration of survival in a harsh and cruel new land. The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony broke bread with Christian converts from the Wampanoag tribe after a good harvest following a particularly awful winter. This is the traditional story of Thanksgiving, although there is still no consensus on the first Thanksgiving celebration in North America. A year before the separatist Pilgrims fled to Plymouth in order to found a new Anglican church, Englishmen and women celebrated their safe arrival in Virginia with a large feast. Well before this, in 1565, 800 Spanish settlers in St. Augustine, Florida held a Mass and a large feast to give thanks for God’s guidance in founding the new settlement.

The only “ugly” Thanksgiving celebration that the haters can point to concerns the 1637 celebration in the Massachusetts Bay following the gutting of the Pequot settlement at Mystic, Connecticut by militiamen fighting the Pequot War. Again, the truth is far more complex, as every war fought between the English colonists and the various tribes of New England involved tit-for-tat massacres, including the opening days of King Philip’s War , where the stated goal of the tribes was to kill every English settler that they could find. Almost fifty years before this, Virginian celebrations of Thanksgiving often invoked the settlement’s good fortune in surviving the Jamestown Massacre of 1622, where one-quarter of all settlers were brutally murdered by the Powhatans.

Thanksgiving is obviously an American holiday with a special history. However, non-American frens can appreciate the story, plus they can drool over the delicious foods that are typically consumed at a normal Thanksgiving feast. Here, I would like to go over some of the more common and delicious Thanksgiving foods.

TURKEY

The turkey is a type of foul native to the New World. Spanish and English explorers introduced the turkey to Europe in the 1500s after settling parts of Central and North America. Turkey meat is mostly white and is approximately 74-percent water. Turkey also famously includes tryptophan, an amino acid that often makes people sleepy. Turkey meat is notoriously dry, and since most Thanksgiving turkeys are cooked in conventional ovens for hours, Thanksgiving celebrants usually take their turkey with gravy to keep things juicy.

Stuffing

Stuffing denotes a mixture of breadcrumbs, onion, celery, and spices that are cooked inside of the turkey. Stuffing is one of the most common Thanksgiving side dishes, and like the turkey, is often consumed with gravy.

Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes are fairly universal, so require very little explanation. English in origin, the mashed potatoes dish requires nothing more than boiling down potatoes until they turn fluffy, then adding milk, butter, salt, and pepper. Again, Thanksgiving lovers often have their mashed potatoes with gravy.

Vegetables

Common Thanksgiving vegetables include green beans, carrots, onions, and peas. Squash is not unheard of, although it is not particularly common either. One must remember that Thanksgiving is a cold weather holiday, so must of the vegetables consumed are those that are tilled from underneath the soil (i.e., root vegetables).

Cranberry Sauce

Cranberries are small, red fruits that grow in cold bogs in chilly climates. As such, they are most closely associated in America with the great state of Maine in the far north of New England. Cranberries are a tart fruit that can be dried or served as a juice. For Thanksgiving, cranberry sauce, which is something between a compote and a jelly, is served on the side.
Some families like to make it homemade, where it is coarse, while others like it out of a can because of the distinct circular can marks.

Pie

Once the feast is over, room is made for dessert. The most common Thanksgiving dessert is pie, with pumpkin pie predominating in most households. Don’t let the name fool you; there is not a whole lot of pumpkin in pumpkin pie. This delicious dessert is mostly eggs, sugar, nutmeg, condensed milk, pumpkin spice, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. You need to try it before you die, non-American frens. Trust me.

Other pies served at Thanksgiving can include apple pie, blueberry pie, or mince pie. Pecan pie is served at my family’s Thanksgiving alongside pumpkin pie, but that is only because we are a Southern household.

Speaking of my family, we do one thing that is unique on Thanksgiving. Thanks to my grandmother’s Swiss-German ancestry, sauerkraut is a staple of our Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years’ celebrations. Our family prepares sauerkraut with bacon. Since my dad hates sauerkraut, I usually get to have extra servings. It’s delicious, plus I get to torment him and the rest of my family with flatulence for days.

Hope you have enjoyed this small article. Thanksgiving is a great, all-American holiday that is best enjoyed with good food, good beer, and family. If you are an American or Canadian fren, I want to wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving. If your not a North American fren, then I strongly encourage you to try some of this food out for yourself. You will not regret it.