The holiday we celebrate as Thanksgiving did not originate with the Pilgrims, nor was it celebrated consistently since then. A day set aside in gratitude for a bountiful harvest occurred in the US sporadically, but was often used to give thanks for battlefield successes as well. It wasn’t celebrated nationally until after the Revolutionary War, and only consistently since the Civil War. And there are plenty of other countries that have festivals and celebrations revolving around giving thanks. But somewhere along the way, we settled on the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock as the model for America’s “first Thanksgiving,” and have used their celebration feast, which was relatively well-documented, as the inspiration for ours.
The feast can be described as a showcase of American food. Turkey, cranberries, pumpkins, corn, and potatoes are New World foods, but the Pilgrims were European newcomers in Massachusetts, and didn’t have all of those things available. They also didn’t have flour, sugar, or ovens. And in the year 1621, they had very few woman to prepare elaborate dishes. This means quite a disconnect between how we picture the Pilgrim’s Thanksgiving dinner and what we traditionally serve today. Not that there’s anything wrong with our traditional dishes, but they aren’t what the Pilgrims ate, which is explained in detail at Mental Floss.
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Source: neatorama