Show why we have i 11 turkey f times a year at THREE thanksgiving christmas a and n d t new years the people of the cited united states advance upon a iain huge golden bronze fo fowl wl cut 1 I ts throat strip it of its P plumage lumage and aid convert it into a savory dish avrich fairly makes the old table broan biroan under the extra burden since t we ie have raised this bird into a Viat rational lat ional significance which parallels 00 an almost equal degree that of he eagle symbol of the govern nent brient itself it has a special interest to ko all americans although many folks alks may still be as poor as jobs 1 arkey says a writer in pathfinder Wag magazine azine they somehow manage ind d contrive to have turkey f for or thanksgiving anks giving whether they can or annot afford it in years gone by those families who ho could not afford turkey turned io chicken duck beef rabbit or even pork and were glad to get it but now lets get back to the question r of why we have or try to have I 1 r would Z uld like to have or imagine we would rm lik like to have tu turkey key eor or thanks thanksgiving living dinner the answer of of course is that the turkey Is strictly an american bird and serving ervino it at feasts of thanksgiving is s an old and ancient american custom some authorities will tell you u that we eat turkey on thanksgiving day because after the first harvest arvest in the fall of 1621 the pilgrim fathers at plymouth set aside a period for feasting and offering ning A j A the turkey Is regarded as an american bird thanks to provide food for this least feast hunters were sent out by governor bradford and they returned with a large supply of game hospitality pita lity was extended to the indians bl 91 of whom attended the festival W apt which ich lasted for three days conspicuous mong among the gams on the bables tables were numerous wild turkeys then then common in the woods of massachusetts from this circum a tance they say arose the popular association of these birds with thanksgiving days this of course is the true origin of the custom so far as white man has been concerned with it but the origin of turkey feasts goes back much farther the millions of families who plan on enjoying hearty thanksgiving turkey dinners this year will in reality be ob observing serving a custom that prevailed ages before ahe the pilgrims first gathered around their festive board in new england smithsonian institution records now bridge the years that veil the aboriginal civilizations and show that the indians of the southwest domesticated turkeys and fattened them for their ceremonial feasts while the pilgrim fathers grateful for good harvests and a year of prosperity in the new world decided on a day of thanksgiving to be celebrated at a banquet of roast turkey really gave posterity the spirit of thanksgiving the practice of such feasts had been established long before by the cliff dwellers who actually got their birds from a pen as we do today and not from a thicket as the pilgrims did according to smithsonian records the turkey of the aboriginal indians more n nearly e a r I 1 y approximated the A rash Rk Sh U when the festive bird goes into the oven thanksgiving turkey of today than the scrawny wild fowl felled by the blunderbuss of the pilgrim huntsman most of our domesticated varieties of turkeys today are really descended from the mexican wild turkey that ranged over arizona western new mexico and southern colorado virtually the dooryard of earliest american civilization the pilgrim turkey was merely the wild variety of the same bird which roame roamed d the eastern part of the united states just as the turkey was exclusively an american bird in the time of the aboriginal indians so it is today no fowl from any foreign country approximates it in fact wherever turkeys are raised today and they have been introduced to many foreign countries the ancestral stock came from america and so far as is known turkeys are never imported to this country contrary to popular opinion t the h e turkey did not get its name from turkey the country of that name the first turkeys taken from the new world america and sold in spain were handled largely by hebrew merchants since t the h e turkey was frequently confused with the peacock it was quite natural that the hebrew trades should apply to it their name for the peacock or tukki more or less common use of this name followed which easily became in english our present name turkey zat |