Inventing Thanksgiving

There's lots of tradition when it comes to Thanksgiving. But a lot of how and when we celebrate, what we eat, and what we look forward to about the long holiday weekend sort of evolved on the fly.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I hear you. Thanksgiving is pretty packed with tradition. But
did you know that a lot of those traditions, everything
from when it takes place to what we eat to
the Macy's parade, kind of happened and then evolved by chance.
I'm Patty Steele. Thanksgiving rewind Next on the backstory. We're

(00:21):
back with the backstory. Thanksgiving is all about food, family, festivity,
but most of all, it's about gratitude. But how did
the way we celebrate begin? Well, we know the story
of the first Thanksgiving back in sixteen twenty one, but
family feasts with turkey, overeating, parades, everything else all came

(00:42):
about a whole lot later. The whole idea of a
feast this time of year actually originated with immigrants who
were used to harvest festivals in late autumn in their
mother countries, particularly Europe. Now, as for what we eat,
it turns out the first Thanksgiving in our parts may
or may not have turkey. Historians say that the first

(01:02):
feast probably was likely roasted deer, ducks and geese, but
not so much turkey. There were a lot of wild
turkeys across the Northeast in those early days, but the
feast was more about whatever was close at hand. Eventually,
on farms, turkeys were only raised for meat, unlike cattle
or even chickens, which provided milk and eggs, so turkeys

(01:25):
were a little more handy and more expendable for the
dinner table. Ultimately, though, one of the drivers for roasted
turkey was actually the popularity of a British story from
Charles Dickens, a Christmas carol where a giant turkey is
celebrated as the ultimate Christmas feast. The story, published in
eighteen forty three, was so intensely popular, not just in

(01:47):
England but here in the States it made turkey the
star of the show for most feasts by the mid
eighteen fifties. Now, why do we celebrate Thanksgiving when we celebrate?
Through the seventeen hundred and into the eighteen hundreds, days
of Thanksgiving were set aside at various times, most likely
in October. But in eighteen sixty three Abraham Lincoln declared

(02:10):
Thanksgiving a national holiday, and he set it for the
last Thursday in November, coinciding with the dates that the
Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth two hundred and forty two years earlier.
But it wasn't until nineteen thirty nine that Thanksgiving was
permanently set as the fourth Thursday in November, And of
course that was to stretch the holiday shopping season in

(02:32):
those years when Thanksgiving may have come almost a week
later in the month. And what about the iconic Macy's
Thanksgiving Day parade. Well, if you're like me, you have
vivid memories of sitting in front of the TV Thanksgiving
morning watching the parade while your mom and dad or
various relatives began the process of getting the turkey in

(02:52):
the oven. I know for me, it wouldn't feel like
Thanksgiving without a peek at the parade. Right, The parade
actually goes back almost one hundred years. It's nineteen twenty four,
the Roaring twenties in the heart of New York City.
Macy's department store wanted to celebrate its success and also
thank customers for their shopping loyalty. Inspired by festive European traditions,

(03:16):
Macy's employees, lots of recent immigrants among them, suggested a
really beautiful parade. Imagine the scene. Brilliant costumes, floats made
mostly with flowers, and marching bands. In those days, there
were no balloons, so they borrowed animals for the parade
from the Central Park Zoo. Yeah, there were elephants, camels,

(03:38):
and bears marching down New York City streets with two
hundred and fifty thousand people on the sidelines. Yikes. That
kind of sets up for some trouble, right. The parade
route was six miles long. It was a huge way
to kick off the holiday season, and it grew every year,
but nineteen twenty seven was a pivotal year. That was

(03:58):
when they introduced the first giant balloon to replace the
hard to manage animals. Felix the Cat was the first balloon,
although it wasn't helium filled, Handlers held it up by
poles and walked it through the city streets. That would
have been a big job. By the nineteen thirties, helium
allowed the balloons to soar, and each year more balloons

(04:19):
representing the pop culture of the day appear. Now, the
thing about the parade is it's pretty much always been there,
in good times and bad. The depression years were difficult,
but Macy's continued with it since it provided a much
needed escape and a little bit of happiness for folks.
Right World War II paused the parade from nineteen forty
two to nineteen forty four, when the rubber and helium

(04:43):
for the balloons were donated to the war effort. But
on its return in nineteen forty five, it was on
TV for the very first time. Not a lot of
people had TV, but if they did, that was the moment.
Families across the country were able to experience the magic.
It's such an important part of our traditions. Even the
pandemic didn't totally shut down the parade. In what was

(05:06):
a stealth operation to keep crowds from gathering, Macy's brought
various floats and balloons to different areas of the city
over a number of days and film segments ahead of time,
then stitched it all together for a broadcast that calmed
people's nerves. The parade has become a cultural touchstone, linking
generations by reflecting our heritage and also the times in

(05:29):
which we live. From the Roaring twenties to the digital age,
the parade has been a constant on Thanksgiving Morning, evolving
with us while maintaining its wonder and excitement and letting
us share some innocence. So however you celebrate Thanksgiving. Whoever
you're with, whatever you're feasting on, remember that Thanksgiving is

(05:49):
simply a day to think about what you're grateful for.
Happy Thanksgiving. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production
of iHeartMedia and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.

(06:11):
Our executive producer is Steve Goldstein of Amplified Media. We're
out with new episodes twice a week. Thanks for listening
to the Backstory, the pieces of history you didn't know
you needed to know.