(WKYT) — For today’s Good Question, Ashley asks: How did turkeys get incorporated with Thanksgiving?
While we think of turkey as a Thanksgiving staple, historians tell us that wasn’t always the case.
Food historian Andrew Smith says at the first feast in 1621, deer and geese were likely the main dishes.
Thanksgiving wouldn’t become a national holiday for more than 200 years after that meal.
In 1863, following the end of the Civil War, author Sarah Josepha Hale persuaded President Abraham Lincoln to set aside a day in November to give thanks.
People in New England had already been celebrating the holiday for about a century and, as they spread west, so did the tradition.
Turkeys became part of the holiday as they were introduced into school curriculums. By the early 20th century, magazines showed turkeys as the centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinner. At that point, the tradition was set.
The bird was already popular in England, and one of them can feed a lot of people.
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