This year Thanksgiving is on Nov. 26. On the Texas A&M University-Commerce campus, the residence halls will close at 1 p.m. on Nov. 25 when most students will be heading home for a traditional Thanksgiving feast with their family.
However, the “traditional” feast of today bears little resemblance to the original colonial feast the European settlers shared with the Native Americans over 400 years ago. According to www.history.com, the History Channel’s Internet site, the pilgrims and the Native Americans sat down to a feast that would probably seem a little odd sitting on the average American’s dining room table come the 26.
Ham, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie were most likely not the menu shared on the first Thanksgiving Day. However, there was a surprising array of seafood visible that day. Lobster, clams and eel were all present, most likely due to Plymouth’s East Coast location. In fact, seal was the staple meat for the fledgling Plymouth colonists (perhaps in lieu of ham) at the time.
While all of these menu choices seem unconventional to the modern American’s sense of tradition, there is evidence they at least had turkey. Back then, the turkeys were wild and shot in the surrounding woods. They were a welcome source of food for the struggling colonists, though a Wal-Mart grocery aisle would have probably been helpful.
A Wal-Mart in Western Africa would also have been helpful come the holidays, according to sophomore English major, David Bush. David Bush and his family lived in western Africa for three years on a missionary trip.
“Half of the time we lived in a missionary camp and sometimes we lived in the village in a mud hut,” Bush said. “Thanksgiving was very different because we didn’t have access to all of the traditional foods and things you usually have. You have to make due with what you have; we usually had some chicken, but almost never turkey. Most animals, if they were at least the size of a squirrel, were killed off in that area for food.”
Even stateside, not all families sit down to turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and other holiday goodies. For example, vegetarians are somewhat left out of this meat-dominated holiday, but several find ways to cope.
“I am a vegetarian and so is my aunt,” junior Elementary Education major Danielle Carter said. “So while there is turkey for others in my family, for us the main course is potatoes. It’s a big carb fest for me.”