1Hi, it's Doug.
2Turkeys like this one I have here are such strange-looking birds,
3don't you think?
4Someone named Charlotte has a question about turkeys.
5Let's give her a call now.
6Hi Doug.
7Hi Charlotte.
8I have a question for you.
9Why do people eat turkey on Thanksgiving?
10Oh, that's a great question.
11It's not many holidays people celebrate where there's a bird connected with it.
12I mean, when you think of your birthday, you think cake, right?
13It's not like people go, "Oh hey, happy birthday, here's a birthday chicken."
14But on Thanksgiving, for so many Americans, it's all about the turkey.
15And turkeys are such a strange bird too, aren't they?
16These birds are huge.
17It's a wonder they can even fly.
18If you'd been a chicken farmer and you'd never seen a turkey before,
19you'd think you'd hit the jackpot.
20That's a lot more meat!
21Then there's how they sound.
22What other bird makes a sound like this?
23So weird!
24But maybe most impressive of all is how they look.
25The males look different from the females,
26with a long, bright red snood,
27that fleshy thing that hangs over their beak,
28and with those huge tail feathers that they can fan out in a display.
29All so that each male can put on a dance for the females.
30They really do this: a turkey dance!
31So what gives?
32Why are turkeys such a huge part of one of our major holidays?
33Well, whenever you want to find out why there's some tradition that people have
34something they do regularly every year
35the way I try to find out is to look for experts on the past.
36I look for a historian,
37someone who keeps track of the stories and events that happened before you and I were alive.
38Lots of historians have written books and web pages
39about how different holidays got started,
40including the holiday of Thanksgiving.
41I didn't know the answer to this question until I started looking.
42And I was surprised to find out
43that Thanksgiving is a holiday that goes way, way back in history.
44In ancient times,
45lots of people all around the world would have a big feast or meal at some point in the fall season.
46It would be a big celebration.
47Now why do you think that is?
48Why a big celebration in the fall?
49And why especially a feast or a big meal?
50Well, the reason for this big feast every fall
51was because that is the time of harvest.
52The time when food would have finished growing for the year and be ready to collect.
53It was a time of celebration.
54A time to finally feel relaxed after so much hard work.
55And for many people, a time to feel thankful too.
56Thankful to friends and family for all their hard work together.
57Thankful for good weather.
58Thankful for plenty of food saved up for the winter.
59In the country of England in particular,
60it became popular to combine the fall harvest with the idea of giving thanks
61and calling that day Thanksgiving.
62And so, it became a holiday in England.
63The word "Thanksgiving" is English.
64But in England, while these Thanksgiving feasts would have had bread,
65maybe some chicken and gravy, maybe some apples,
66what they didn't have was turkey.
67That's because, by this point,
68the people living in England had no idea that turkeys even existed.
69Turkeys, you see, were a bird found only in the continent of North America.
70They're special to North America.
71While the Europeans and other people in the world had no idea turkeys existed,
72the Indigenous or First Nations peoples of North America knew all about them.
73And turkeys were an incredibly valuable part of their lives.
74Indigenous people of Mexico, such as the Mayans and the Aztecs,
75were some of the very first turkey farmers.
76They'd raise and breed turkeys,
77and just like chickens, they'd use them for their eggs.
78Yeah, you can eat turkey eggs!
79They'd eat the meat of the turkey too.
80And they'd use the turkey's beautiful feathers for decorations and ceremonies.
81The kind of turkey found in Mexico, called the oscillated turkey,
82has especially shiny and colorful feathers.
83When the English started coming to North America,
84they brought their celebration of Thanksgiving with them.
85Their feast had always included foods they were used to.
86But when they arrived in North America,
87now, they were in the land of the Indigenous people of North America.
88These people grew and ate foods the English people had never seen:
89corn, cranberries,
90pumpkins, squash,
91and turkeys.
92The English people living in North America soon started to include these Indigenous North American foods
93in their Thanksgiving meal.
94Now here's the funny thing:
95even though Thanksgiving, with that name, started out as a holiday celebrated by the English,
96it isn't really celebrated much in England anymore.
97But in the United States and in Canada,
98where many English people moved, it stayed a holiday.
99In fact, it's become a major holiday,
100with turkeys having become a symbol of the entire day.
101People hang up turkey decorations,
102sometimes dress their pets in turkey costumes,
103and even though it was the English who may have named it Thanksgiving,
104it's not a holiday that's about celebrating a certain people or a certain country.
105Anyone can celebrate Thanksgiving.
106For many people living in North America today,
107this is a holiday about getting together with close friends or family
108and taking time out of our busy lives to be thankful for all that we have.
109No matter where you come from and no matter what you eat.
110That's all for this week's question.
111Thanks, Charlotte, for asking it!