Why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving?
I teach English to students from other countries. We've been talking about Thanksiving recently, and my students keep asking why Americans eat turkey on the holiday. The only answer I can come up with is "it's traditional." I've tried to research the answer, but I discovered that there's no record that the pilgrims really ate turkey on Thanksgiving, which is the answer that most people give. Can anybody give me a good explanation to give my students?
Thanksgiving - 7 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
i would imagine that's a given, wild turkey would have been the game of the season. i suspect they had fish and maybe some other type of game as well.
2 :
Turkey is a new world food. It is easier to hunt than deer, and is large enough to be appealing as a food for a feast. I think over the years it has become symbolic of the new things that the Pilgrims came across in the New World.
3 :
Well i am only 10 so i wild take a guess. Maybe it is because that was the only animal they could hunt or something, or it just tasted good! lol
4 :
Cause in the past they ate DUCK and deer with beans and i dont think we wanna eat ducks :P
5 :
Because during those times mostly in America other than deer, and bison, turkey was seemed as very plentiful and festive in a way. But a lot of things served today weren't in thanksgiving like pies because there wasn't enough sugar.
6 :
Well, the only two items that we know the pilgrims ate are wild fowl and venison. I have been researching this question as well because my eighth grade students have been asking the same question. One answer I found is that Queen Elizabeth delighted in the taste of turkey. When she found out the Spanish Armada had sailed to fight her navy, she ordered a second turkey at the dinner table. It became a favorite of the people in England; thus, they started this tradition of eating turkey during a meal to give thanks. This would make sense since wild fowl was in abundance.
7 :
Because the Pilgrims were wayy too slow to catch any other type of meat, so thats why we, to this day, chase around turkeys to put on our dinner tables for thanksgiving dinner.
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