Smart Talk: Celebrating Thanksgiving

How Americans first gave thanks and how the region has influenced the traditional Thanksgiving meal

• Merideth Bucher
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Producer of WITF's Smart Talk

Tomorrow, Americans at home and abroad will celebrate Thanksgiving, the annual national holiday featuring a traditional meal and gatherings of families and friends (during non-pandemic times).

Most Americans learned in school that the meal and holiday is modeled on a harvest feast shared between the Pilgrims and local Indians who helped them survive after arriving in the “New World.”

Pennsylvania has a unique tie to the Thanksgiving story. According to historical record, the first official Thanksgiving was celebrated in the United States in York, Pennsylvania, after the Continental Congress retreated there from Philadelphia. The event was not a meal, per se, but a moment to reflect and give thanks on successes achieved during the fight for independence. It did, however, set a precedent for the federal government’s recognition of a Thanksgiving holiday.

While that history is accepted as fact, the Thanksgiving traditions American’s observe today probably bear little resemblance to the first Thanksgiving meal in 1621. Foods are of course different and the meaning behind the national holiday has also developed over time and through regional influences.

Joining Smart Talk to share detail behind the first official Thanksgiving is Christine Cooper, Manager of Public Programs with the York County History Center.

Smart Talk is also joined by William Woys Weaver, Ph.D., culinary historian, author, ethnographer and heirloom foods preservationist who will offer anecdotes on how regional celebrations developed into what we enjoy today.