Carving the Meaning Out of Thanksgiving Traditions: HowStuffWorks.com Talks Turkey, Football and Parades

      

"Year after year, friends and families get together to observe Thanksgiving and follow their annual traditions," said Conal Byrne, Editor-in-Chief, HowStuffWorks.com. "Few people understand why they are giving thanks, eating turkey or making cranberry sauce; they assume it is their family's tradition. The truth is that Thanksgiving traditions have been influenced by many different cultures over the centuries."

This fall, HowStuffWorks.com, an award-winning, credible online resource that provides easy-to-understand information and explanation for thousands of topics, offers those curious Thanksgiving guests something else to be thankful for: a cornucopia of little-known facts from an article titled, "How Thanksgiving Works" which might make this year's celebration even more meaningful:

    --  The Pilgrims and Indians were not the first to celebrate "Thanksgiving."
        Every autumn, the ancient Greeks enjoyed a three-day festival to honor
        Demeter, the goddess of corn and grains. The Romans had a similar
        celebration in which they honored Ceres, the goddess of corn.

    --  And you thought Grandma's cornucopia was ancient. The cornucopia
        actually dates back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. In Greek
        mythology, the cornucopia is an enchanted severed goat's horn, created
        by Zeus to produce a never-ending supply of whatever the owner desires.

    --  Thanksgiving Day parades began as a marketing technique. The tradition
        of Thanksgiving parades goes back to the early 20th century, when people
        began to associate Thanksgiving with the beginning of the Christmas
        shopping season. In order to attract customers, stores like Macy's
        sponsored elaborate parades like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

    --  Turkey pardons date as far back as the 1800s. The tradition is thought
        to be connected to Abraham Lincoln sparing a turkey named "Jack" from
        becoming the main dish in a holiday meal.

    --  There's a reason we eat turkey. The connection between turkey and
        Thanksgiving goes back to the prevalence of wild turkey in the New
        World. At the time of the first Thanksgiving, Plymouth Colony Governor
        William Bradford commented on "the great store of wild turkeys."

    --  Corn and cranberries date back to the first Thanksgiving. Before you
        accuse the cook of going overboard with side dishes, consider this:
        after turkey, the most significant dish on the table is corn. This
        abundant crop was an important staple to the Pilgrims. Cranberries were
        also probably on the first Thanksgiving table. The American Indians
        taught the Pilgrims to make a cranberry sauce called "ibimi," which
        means "bitter berry." When the colonists saw the berry, they renamed it
        "crane-berry," because its flowers resembled the long-necked bird called
        the crane.

    --  Football is a Thanksgiving tradition too... kind of. In ancient harvest
        festivals, people usually celebrated with games and sports, so you could
        argue the football tradition has very deep roots.

HowStuffWorks.com has the holiday 411, from history to do-it-yourself decoration ideas. Even those know-it-alls can take the Ultimate Thanksgiving Quiz at HowStuffWorks.com.

About HowStuffWorks.com:

HowStuffWorks.com is an award-winning online resource that provides credible and easy-to-understand information and explanations for thousands of topics. The site has been recognized with multiple Webby Awards and has been prestigiously designated among Time Magazine's "25 Web Sites We Can't Live Without" and PC Magazine's "Top 100 Web Sites." In 2007, HowStuffWorks.com was acquired by Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK).

SOURCE HowStuffWorks.com