HOLLOW DAYS Does seem to you that we are gradually reworking our national holidays to make sure they are centered on gastronomic extravagance! We are heading into the season called “Thanksgiving” a special time for consuming huge quantities of food. It is a kind of dietary preview of how much we plan to eat when Christmas arrives.
The day dedicated to dining has a rather uncertain history. It is well-established hearsay tradition which started during the earliest days of the settlement of New England by Pilgrims from various points in the U.K. area of Europe. The 1620's celebration of gratitude by Pilgrim for a good initial harvest from newly cleared fields in a vast land of forests. Down half-way south in Virginia colonists had been been had experienced both good and bad harvests of their portion of the newly cleared lands, game from the forests, fish and related treats river and nearby sea. Both settlements probably received more essential help from friendly Indians than we admit. It is an interesting sidelight that they did not put on a Thanksgiving show the second year but spoke of poor harvests.
Historians delving into the records concerning the first Thanksgiving Day observance in New England indicated that it seems to have been far from the solemn occasion we laud. It was a three- day festival and included drinking, gambling, athletic contests and target shooting to show the Indians how effective the musket could be. Another reason for calling it off the second year, might well have been the arrival of as new shipload Pilgrims to be fed and housed during the coming winter.
For us to pretend that today's Thanksgiving menu items are caloric echoes from wherever it may have been held. At best they were smörgåsbord's – a wide swath of limited quantities - whatever was available from the woods, waterways and wigwams, hogans or long house dwellings - Indian corn, pumpkins, melons, greens of every shade and critter parts beyond our imagination. The latest addition I have heard about as being from the original Pilgrim version: pop corn!
Are you ready? It's about eight weeks away. To get prepared you need go on a crash diet right away.
A.L.M. September 26 , 2005 [c401wds]
