Thanksgiving a little history.

Now being British we do not really have a thanksgiving day or that is what I thought. In fact if you asked people in the street do we have a day of thanks giving, they probably would say not. If you asked them who does have a thanks giving day then, like myself, until I did a little research into the subject, that only Americans have a thanksgiving day. But you would be wrong.

Thanksgiving Day is celebrated mainly in the United States and Canada, but not on the same day. In Canada it is on the second Monday of October, and in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November. But other places around the world celebrate thanks giving days in Germany they have an  an early October festival “ Erntedankfest”  or “Harvest Thanksgiving Festival”.   Grenada, Japan and Liberia, Norfolk Island and The Netherlands all have thanks giving days. Mind you most of them are in some way linked to some kind of American connection of the Pilgrims who migrated to the Plymouth Plantation.

But it all actually seems back to English traditions from the Protestant Reformation. But more than that if you take the harvest festival aspect of it all you could say it goes all the way back to Celtic pagan times. The English tradition of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important during the English Reformation. Mainly as with the Catholic Church you had so many special days, Henry VIII knew he had to do something to attract people to his faith. In the Old Catholic calendar there was 95 Church holidays and 52 Sundays.  People were required to attend church and forego work. Some radical Puritans wanted to do away with all holidays, even Christmas and Easter.  In the end the 1536 reforms reduced the number of Church holidays to 27.

Days of Fasting or Days of Thanksgiving came about to celebrate, or commemorate events. Everything from drought, floods, plague, victory over the Spanish Armada and the  deliverance of Queen Anne. You could say that as a whole we Brits do not celebrate them now but in 1606 a Day of Thanksgiving began following the failure of the Gunpowder Plot. Better know now as bonfire night or to give it its formal title Guy Fawkes Day, a local lad just down the road for me in York. 

Well if you are looking for a menu idea then you could not do better than this form Martha Stewart herself.

Appetizers

Warm Fennel-and-Parmesan Dip

Kale Crisps with Sea Salt and Lemon

Chilled Oysters with Apple-Ginger Mignonette

*****

Main courses

Dry-Brined Roasted Broad-Breasted White Turkey

Roasted Heritage Turkey

*****

Side dishes

Calvados Gravy

Cornbread, Bacon, Leek, and Pecan Stuffing

Cranberry-Apple Chutney

Parsnip-Apple Mash

Farro Salad with Oven-Roasted Grapes and Autumn Greens

Dumpling Squash with Cream and Sage

*****

Dessert

Cranberry-Port Sorbet

Black Walnut Shortbread Cookies

Gabrielle's Honey Pie

Pumpkin Layer Cake

Quince-Ginger Compote