Breakfast Club #380 - 11/26/09

For the local news head to KFIZ.com

6:17am: Thanksgiving Forecast:
Today: Breezy and cloudy with rain ending early and a high of 40.
Tonight: Colder and partly cloudy with a low of 25.
Friday: Mostly sunny with a high of 40.
Saturday: Mostly sunny with a high of 51.
Sunday: Cloudy with a chance for light rain or snow. High of 40.

6:50am: Larry The Legend won today's KFIZ News Quiz.

7:20am: If you have a turkey question today as you cook your Thanksgiving Dinner...call the Butterball hotline at 1-800-288-8372.

7:55am: Thanksgiving Facts that I mentioned on the air...

THANKSGIVING HISTORY AND INTERESTING FACTS

The year 1621 is generally acknowledged as the year in which the first Thanksgiving celebration was held. Colonists from Plymouth, Massachusetts and the Wampanoag Indians shared a meal in the celebration that reportedly lasted for three days. The fall feast was in keeping with a longstanding Indian tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for successful crops that year. Many Native American tribes celebrate similar festivals that might be accompanied by dances and other ways to celebrate a successful summer and fall for their people. (www.history.com)

While tradition today is to have turkey, dressing, green beans, sweet potato casserole and pumpkin and apple pie, the first feast was a bit different for the colonists and their Indian friends. No one knows the menu for sure, but it’s pretty certain that venison and wild fowl were a part of it because they are both mentioned in varying accounts of that first feast. (www.history.com)


The most detailed description of the "First Thanksgiving" comes from Edward Winslow from “A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth,” in 1621:

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.” (www.history.com)

Other interesting Thanksgiving facts:

Potatoes were not on the first Thanksgiving menu because it was thought that this vegetable was poisonous. This misconception stems from the time of Queen Elizabeth I. Her cooks weren't familiar with the potato, so instead of cooking the root they threw it out and boiled the stems and leaves instead. The royal family members became very ill, and potatoes were banned for more than a century.

President Thomas Jefferson was not in favor of a Thanksgiving holiday for the U.S. It remained a custom unsanctified by law until President Roosevelt signed a bill on November 26th, 1941 that established the fourth Thursday in November as the national Thanksgiving public holiday.

Canada also celebrates Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving falls on the second Monday in October.

The Horn of Plenty, or Cornucopia, which symbolizes abundance, originated in Greece.

About 280 million turkeys are sold for the Thanksgiving celebrations in the U.S. Ninety-one percent of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day.

More than 40 million green bean casseroles are served on Thanksgiving.

Twenty percent of cranberries eaten are consumed on Thanksgiving.

There are three places in the United States named after the holiday’s traditional main course — Turkey, Texas; Turkey Creek, Louisiana and Turkey, North Carolina. There are also nine townships around the country named “Turkey,” with three in Kansas.

Columbus thought that the land he discovered was connected to India. Since peacocks are in abundance there, he thought turkeys were a kind of peacock (actually they are a type of pheasant). Columbus named them “tuka”, which is "peacock" in the Tamil language of India.

The Christmas shopping season in the U.S. usually starts on "Black Friday" or the day after Thanksgiving. This has been a tradition since at least the 1930s.

8:20am: The annual Packer Turkey Prank took place last week in Green Bay....Click Here to listen to a podcast of Wade Bates' story from the Breakfast Club