Every year, thousands of people flock to the grocers to purchase a turkey to prepare for Thanksgiving Day. Those dinners in households around the country might look quite different today if Benjamin Franklin had made the decision about the countryís national symbol.Franklin believed the turkey, not the eagle, should have been the countryís national emblem. He felt the turkey was more representative of the new nation, and expressed that opinion in a letter to his daughter.ìFor my own part, I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country,î Franklin wrote. ìHe is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly … For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird… . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.îWith the turkey as the national symbol, Thanksgiving might have consisted of different fare.Actually, the first Thanksgiving was a three-day event, with ìfowlî and deer as part of the meal. The fowl in question may or may not have been the ubiquitous wild turkey, and the Wampanoag or Massasoit people provided the deer. The wild turkey was a far cry from today’s modern grocery-store variety, with a much gamier flavor and quite a bit more dark meat than white. Seafood may have been served as well because it was readily available to the colonists. One thing for sure: potatoes and pumpkin pie were not on the menu.Thanksgiving also marks the start of the somewhat infamous holiday shopping season, with Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, as the kick-start. President Franklin Roosevelt tried to extend the shopping period and give the economy a boost by moving Thanksgiving up a week, but not every state in the union followed his lead. So, the nation ended up with a ìbattle of the Thanksgivings,î until Roosevelt changed his mind. Shortly thereafter, in 1941, the U.S. Congress declared that Thanksgiving would be celebrated the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains to this day with universal agreement.Sources:http://greatseal.com/symbols/turkey.html http://history.com/news/hungry-history/turkey-talk-the-story-behind-your-thanksgiving-bird http://history.com/topics/thanksgiving/first-thanksgiving-meal http://history.com/news/abraham-lincoln-and-the-mother-of-thanksgiving
