Stuff You Should Know - How Thanksgiving Works

Episode Date: November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving is an unusual holiday in America -- there's no religious connotation, and the only traditions are a good meal and a sense of appreciation for the good things in life. Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn more about Thanksgiving. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flooring contractors agree. When looking for the best to care for hardwood floors, use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner. The residue-free, fast drying solution is specially designed for hardwood floors, delivering the safe and effective clean you trust. Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is available at most retailers where floor cleaning products are sold and on Amazon. Also available for your other hard surface floors like Stone, Tile, Laminate, Vinyl, and LVT. For cleaning tips and exclusive offers, visit Bona.com slash Bona Clean. Attention Bachelor Nation. He's back. The host of some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison. During two decades in reality TV, Chris saw it all and now he's telling

all. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. We have a lot to talk about. Listen to the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? Welcome to Stuck You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Kaka, welcome to the podcast. This is Josh. There's Chuck. Kaka. That's right. That's our best turkey. Yeah. That was not a turkey. Yes, it was. I believe that was the signal that the police are coming. The Owen Wilson used in Bottle Rocket. That's right. Yeah. Nice. Sorry. Nice hipster reference, Chuck. Is it? I thought that maybe a big nerd. No, no. It was a cool movie and everybody should

know about it. Yeah. So turkeys. Turkeys. Yes. Let's talk. I'm not saying it. Say it. No. Let's talk turkey. Okay. So we are talking turkey. It's almost Thanksgiving. Yes, it is. And I'm getting a little hungry. Yeah. It's my favorite holiday. Yeah. Is it really? That's weird. Is it? Yeah. What's yours? Arbor Day? Flag Day. Flag Day? No, really. Thanksgiving's your favorite holiday. Yeah. Why? Well, I enjoy the rituals of the football. I like the meal. Yeah. I like the sentiment behind it. Giving thanks and being thankful. What about presents? You get no presents on Thanksgiving. My present is being off work for a few days and laying around and drinking water. That is the gift that keeps on giving. Yeah. That's great. I had no idea, Chuck, and fantastic. You were the

first person I've ever met whose favorite holiday was Thanksgiving. Well, that's cool. Get out more. My collection is growing more replete. What's your favorite holiday though? Christmas. Really? Oh, yeah. I like Christmas too, but there's the whole shopping thing and the greed of the companies. It's all, it taints it a bit in my opinion. The greed is only, it only goes as far as you let it. You know? True. True. If you buy somebody a present you think is appropriate and not too excessive, they're not going to shove it back in your face and say, you take this back and double what you paid for it. Right. I just mean more along the lines of the consumerism as a whole. I understand. But yeah, I'm off my soapbox. Well, let's get back to Chuck's favorite holiday,

Thanksgiving. Yeah. And actually, everything you know about Thanksgiving is wrong. Me? Everybody. Everybody. Most people. Right. Well, actually, I shouldn't say most things. You know those elementary school pageants that, you know, a lot of us are going to be forced to go watch this season. Sure. Or have seen already, scarily enough. Those are actually fairly accurate. Yeah. As far as the pilgrims and the Native Americans sitting down together. Yeah. That is very much the bare bones of the story. Right. The wardrobe is off apparently. Yeah. No buckles. Pilgrims didn't wear the, they don't look like the Quaker Oaks guy or they, apparently, they only wore black and white on Sunday. Yeah. And the buckles, again,

didn't come into fashion until about 50 or 60 years later. Much later. Yeah. So the buckles, you almost never saw a, you know, the cartoon turkeys dressed like a pilgrim. Very rarely did you see that in North America in the 17th century. Right. I've been working on that one. It gets no laughs ever. You want to repeat it? We'll move on. Might be funny the second time. So yeah, there was, there was a guy named Squanto. Uh-huh. There were Puritan settlers, right, the pilgrims, and they did sit down for a feast. Yeah. And they landed on Plymouth Rock. Yeah. There was a lot more to the story, though. All right. So you want me to give you a little background here? Please do. Okay. So basically the, the Puritans and it wasn't just the Puritans

who settled Plymouth. There was actually another group called the strangers who thought the Puritans were complete religious wackos. Really? Oh yeah. They did not really get along very well. Uh-huh. But they were all in it together. They called themselves the strangers? Uh, no. I think the Puritans called them the strangers. Okay. Yeah. And a lot of them were Catholic. Right. Yeah. So they all, they were all in it together because they were all in deep. Really, really big trouble. When they landed, it was November 1620. So they showed up just in time for a harsh northeastern winter. Yeah. And within the first four months, 48 of the first of the original hundred people died. Yeah. We're talking dying of exposure, of starvation,

like horrible ways to die. Yeah. And the people who survived the winter weren't much better off than the ones who died. Yeah. They still had no idea what they were doing. Like they brought some types of grain with them that wouldn't grow in North America. Right. They didn't know what they were getting into at all. No. No. They wouldn't have said, Hey, let's land in Massachusetts in November. I bet it's nice. Exactly. So there was one big stroke of luck that would actually prove to be enormous luck. They found a deserted Wapa Noog settlement called Pawtucket. Right. Pawtucket actually abandoned this bad word. It's actually, it was deserted because pretty much the entire population had been decimated by smallpox, which was courtesy of English explorers and

traders who'd come through and said, Hey, and here's some smallpox. Right. Thanks for that. So it was, it was abandoned. It was deserted. There's no one living there. Basically just bones laying around, but the structures were still there. So the pilgrims move into this village. And it just so happens that a guy named Squanto had grown. That was his home village. That's where he'd grown up. Right. But he wasn't there when the smallpox hit or else he would have likely died with everybody else. Right. He was actually in England. There was a, depending on who you ask, he was either sponsored by an English trader and sent to England to be educated or he was shipped to England as a slave, which a lot of people don't know this, but the Puritans actually

helped set off the slave trade in North America. Before we visited Africa, we used Native Americans as slaves and we shipped them back to England commonly. Either way, Squanto was educated in England and he'd been away from several years. He comes home to his home village to find a bunch of white people squatting there. Right. But it just so happens that the, this group of white people are starving. They're on the verge of death. And all of a sudden one of the handful of Native Americans who can speak English in, in on the North American continent at that time show up out of the wilderness and says, let me help. That's crazy how it worked out like that. Well, you can imagine the Puritans viewed this as they viewed Squanto as being sent by God, which

actually ended up justifying centuries of genocide and all that because we were meant to be here clearly. And you kind of have to wonder that if Squanto had been given a flash of the future, would he have helped? You know, I mean, sure we have internet and menthol cigarettes, but at what cost? Right. You know, it makes you wonder if he would have just kind of walked away back into the woods like, good luck. Right. Those 50 may have died and changed the course of, you know, American history for sure. Revocably. Yeah. So he helps them. He basically teaches the Puritans how to survive in North America. Right. How to farm, what to grow. Get corn. Corn. Big one. Yeah. Huge. Which we both know is enormous. And let's see how to hunt deer. How to harvest

shellfish. Right. And sap from maple trees. Yes. That kind of thing. So he, he, he, he saves this group of people. And it is true that out of respect for his help and by this time, Squanto had been adopted by or absorbed into a nearby Wapanoag tribe. Right. So out of gratitude, they invited Squanto and his family for a celebratory feast. Yeah. Which was the first Thanksgiving. Exactly. And that's the one that you'll see in elementary schools around the country this November. And historians think that, um, it actually did take place in the fall. So that, that much is on par. It's not probably not the fourth Thursday in Thanksgiving. And I doubt if they watched any football or maybe they did. Sports were involved. Yeah. The war on drugs impacts everyone,

whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy. Number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute a 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course. Yes. They can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being

robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the I heart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. There is no need for the outside world because we are removed from it and apart from it and in our own universe on the new podcast, the turning room of mirrors. We look beneath the delicate veneer of American ballet and the culture formed by its most influential figure, George Balanchine. There are not very many of us that actually grew up with Balanchine. It was like I grew up with Mozart. He could do no wrong. Like he was a God. But what was the cost for the dancers who brought these ballets to life where the lines between the professional and the personal

were hazy and often crossed. He used to say, what are you looking at, dear? You can't see you. Only I can see you. Most people in the ballet world are more interested in their experience of watching it than in a dancer's experience of executing it. Listen to the turning room of mirrors on the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And they said they probably based the dinner on the Native American meal plan, which I did a little research into that. Let's hear it. And if you want to honor our Native American friends here in this Thanksgiving, then you can sit down and have a traditional Native American meal of a bean soup. Sometimes a fried mash. Nice. Not quite sure what that is. I think a smushed corn with milk added. You can roast

yourself a rabbit and chow down on some mutton stew and a little sheep's head. I would eat all that. I would try sheep's head. I never have. But I would happily eat all the rest of it. Yeah. And that would be a traditional or those foods are traditional Native American foods. Yeah. There's one. And like Chuck said, this much more, this first Thanksgiving, much more followed the Native Americans tradition of Thanksgiving. Had it followed the Puritans version of Thanksgiving, there would have been a lot of praying and not dancing and basically just standing around being very solemn. Right. And the Puritans had days of Thanksgiving like crazy. The Native Americans in the Northeast, the Algonquin speaking peoples, they celebrate it six times a

year. Right. And one of them was the harvest. Sure. Which is actually found world round. Yeah. The bunch of ancient cultures and recent cultures celebrated harvest Thanksgiving. Yeah. So that's that's actually kind of what we do today. We still kind of celebrated a little more like the Indian version than the Puritan version. So that's the story of the first Thanksgiving. Right. And basically, it led to I've read I've read analysis on it and people speculate that the Puritans were grateful. But at the same time, they did see Squantos sent by God. Right. Like he had no choice in it. And ultimately, they were kind of getting along because they were about the only English in the area and they were vastly outnumbered by

the Native Americans. Exactly. Within 20 years, the children of both of these groups who were seated at the first Thanksgiving dinner were murdering one another in King Philip's War. And that was the beginning of that. Right. So let's flash forward a little bit, shall we? To the official Thanksgiving. Yeah. The way we recognize it. Right. Well, if you're talking about officially recognized, George Washington started that. Yeah. That's the sporadic Thanksgiving celebrations. Right. That marked actually, sadly, a lot of them marked victories over Native tribes. Yeah. And yeah, considering how things got started, it's that's quite a kick in the face. Yeah. Ultimately, if you are descended from an immigrant from the East, specifically European

immigrant, and you're here in the U.S. and you celebrate Thanksgiving, sadly, what you're really giving thanks for is being on the winning side. Right. You know, the Native Americans don't necessarily take Thanksgiving the same way that people of Anglo descent or European descent in general do. There's actually a day of mourning that they celebrate. Right. Yeah. Near Plymouth. Yes. Just to drive the point home. Yeah. They didn't land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on them. Right. That's the saying. Yeah. So, yeah, but our modern version of Thanksgiving actually comes from a magazine editor. Uh-huh. Right. Now, Chuck was saying, George Washington, he said, let's just consolidate all these Thanksgiving days into one. Right. It didn't really take off,

though, but he was the first one to say it. A magazine editor named Sarah Hale started this letter writing campaign. Now, she had actually come across the two surviving documents that described the first Thanksgiving. So, she got some of it right. That's pretty cool. But she really romanticized it and embellished it. Yeah. And gave us what we think of when we think of Thanksgiving today. Exactly. You know, and what the little kids in elementary school are putting on. It all basically came from this magazine editor's imagination. Right. Take pumpkin pies, for example. I'd love to. I'd love pumpkin pies. I do, too. And I'm grateful that they're part of Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for it. But did you know that it was literally

impossible that pumpkin pies were part of the first Thanksgiving? Do you want to know why? My guess would be that there were no pumpkins. There were pumpkins. Okay. Pumpkins are kind of squash and squash is native to North America. There was pie, but Europeans knew how to make pie. So, what's the problem then? They probably didn't have the flour. They probably didn't have the milk. Even if they did, still, a year after they'd been there, the pilgrims hadn't managed to build a functioning oven yet. Right. So, it's literally impossible that they had pies. And I know they didn't have the cool whip to dollop on top. Definitely not. Yeah. Oil or cream? Right. Yeah. Cream. That's my vote. Agreed. So, Lincoln ratifies and makes it the really official every day.

I think he made it the last day of November. But it was from Sarah Hale. From Sarah Hale's letter writing campaign. Right. And then the Thursday thing came along. I think Franklin Roosevelt moved it up a week. And I love this part. They actually started calling it Frank's Giving. It's just to kind of chide him a little bit because he changed it up. Yeah. Why did he? For Christmas shopping, I believe. Yeah. He did it because the big national retailers were lobbying him to extend the Christmas shopping season. Right. And he did. Should we talk about Turkey? Let's talk. Yes. Let's talk about Turkey. About Turkey. I know you refuse to say talk Turkey. I love it. Turkey was not a part of Thanksgiving initially. They pretty much said that. Right.

Correct. It was most likely venison or some other sort of foul. Wasn't there another? There was foul. And actually, at the time, if you talked to a Puritan about Turkey, they would have that actually characterized any kind of foul. Okay. So, even if they did use the word Turkey, which they didn't, it could mean anything. But there probably were like ducks and geese on the table. Right. And we know there was also cranberry, too. Yeah. Which is one thing that still holds true today, which is nice. Go ahead with the Turkey Chuck. Well, Turkey was not a part back then, but it very much is now. 90% of Americans now eat Thanksgiving on Turkey. And I would imagine the 10% who don't. A lot of those are probably vegetarian. I can't imagine you

would choose another meat if you're not a vegetarian other than Turkey. Yeah. Yeah. You'd have to be some sort of communist. Yeah. If we have listeners out there who do, who are not vegetarian and who opt for steak on Thanksgiving, I'd love to hear from you. Yes. That'd be very cool. But Tofurkey is what the vegetarians prefer because they like to keep it real, keep it traditional. Does anyone really prefer Tofurkey or is it done out of some sort of obligation? Do you think? Like I said, I think it's trying to keep up with the tradition while still maintaining the ethics that the vegetarians hold under here. That's my guess. I understand. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy, number one, is drug abuse. This podcast

is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm a prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call them civil assets. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the I heart radio app, Apple podcast

or wherever you get your podcast. There is no need for the outside world because we are removed from it and apart from it and in our own universe. On the new podcast, the turning room of mirrors, we look beneath the delicate veneer of American ballet and the culture formed by its most influential figure, George Balanchine. There are not very many of us that actually grew up with Balanchine. It was like I grew up with Mozart. He could do no wrong. Like he was a God. But what was the cost for the dancers who brought these ballets to life where the lines between the professional and the personal were hazy and often crossed. He used to say, what are you looking at, dear? You can't see you. Only I can see you. Most people in the ballet world are more interested

in their experience of watching it than in the dancers experience of executing it. Listen to the turning room of mirrors on the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And I think we should talk about football. Wait, hold on. Oh, wait. We've got more on turkey. Okay. First of all, we're expected to eat 46 million turkeys this year for Thanksgiving alone. Wow. 700 million pounds. That's a lot of turkey. And while we're still on the topic of turkey, can I tell you one more thing? Yeah. All right. So, you know how tryptophan makes you sleepy? Yes. That's not the case. Tryptophan, you should explain as a chemical in Turkey, correct? That supposedly makes you sleepy. Right. And actually, it does encourage the production of serotonin,

which is a calming agent on the nervous system. Right. The problem is is tryptophan is effective pretty much only on an empty stomach. Right. Okay. So they've said, well, what is it about the turkey that makes you sleepy? It's not the turkey alone. It's actually the meal. Right. Okay. The average Thanksgiving, the serving, this isn't like the whole spread. Right. This is what you or I are going to sit down and eat. The average meal has 3000 calories. Wow. And 229 grams of fat. Wow. I looked it up, my friend. That's the equivalent of six Big Mac. I was going to say, I bet you're going to put it in Big Mac terms. Yeah. I knew that was coming. Big Mac is like, it should be a standard measure. Wow. Seven Big Macs, huh? Six. Six. Yeah. It's actually calorie wise. It's about

five Big Macs. Fat gram wise, it's about six Big Macs. Wow. That would make me sleepy if I ate six Big Macs. Exactly. The digestion. Chuck, you and I, we know and love the fight or flight response. Right. Sure. Do you remember when, when, when you're faced with danger, digestion stops and everything? Well, this is the exact opposite. Right. Everything else slows down so your stomach can be like, oh, I have to get rid of this. Right. It's a carb heavy meal. Right. And actually, with that, with 3000 calories and 229 fat grams, we would have to run at a moderate pace for four straight hours to burn that off. And we don't do that. No, we don't. Instead, as Chuck was saying, we watch football. We watch football. Yes. Even people who don't like football many times will

watch football on Thanksgiving for the tradition of it. I love football. I love the NFL. I love the Atlanta Falcons. I'll just go ahead and say that. I'm more a college football guy myself, but yes, I know. That's fine. I like that too. But yeah, that started in 1934. The Detroit Lions played the Chicago Bears and lost in 1934. Yeah. But they lost, it was the Lions first year. Sure. The Bears were the national champs. Yeah. And they only lost 13 to 16. It's a pretty good showing for a first year club. Right. They only lost by three points and saved seven years from 39 to 44. They did not play football. And I believe it probably had something to do with World War II. I didn't look it up. Yeah, probably. But I doubt if that's coincidence. You know, I have

a theory about the Lions, actually. I think that they can never pull together a truly decent team because there's so many players out there who don't want to play on Thanksgiving and don't want to play on Christmas. Wow. The Lions have to play on both days almost every year. Robbing their families of fun. Exactly. And the Cowboys are the other team that traditionally plays. And they started that tradition in 1966. They were Johnny Come Lately. Johnny Come Lately's. And a couple of more things here. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is, I don't watch it, which is, I'm just not a big parade guy. But if you're ever in New York City, here's a little tip around Thanksgiving. One thing that's really fun to do, my wife and I did it one year, is to go

the day before the Thanksgiving Day Parade and watch the balloons being blown up. Oh, cool. You can just walk around Central Park. They're out there. Got the streets closed down. They're blowing up. You see Kermit on the ground. They're blowing them up. And there's just kids everywhere and parents everywhere. And it's a delight. And it's not just the mob scene of the actual parade. I think it's a lot more fun. And that's Chuck's recommendation for New York City. Yeah. And I've learned over time that following Chuck around can yield some pretty cool adventures. You could see Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons being blown up. You might run into Tony Shalube. Sure. You could find a severed head in a bucket. There's all sorts of crazy stuff that happens

in Chuck. I saw much more interesting when I started naming these things out loud. Yeah. So Chuck, you got anything else? No, that's it. It's my favorite. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving this year. Yeah. Happy Thanksgiving. Remember, with the stuffed turkey, that's 22 to 24 minutes per pound at 325. Right. If you don't go to the trouble of stuffing your turkey, just knock that down to 18 to 20 minutes per pound at the same temperature. Or you could just forego all that and sit down to a plate of six Big Macs. Yeah. Same result, right? Exactly. Well, until then, happy Thanksgiving. And remember the reason for this season is to give thanks for things you have in your life. You know, it's a busy day.

There's football. There's food. There's fun. Take a short time. Reflect on things. And don't forget about the vanquished. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit HowStuffWorks.com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at HowStuffWorks.com. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life.

Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Bridgewater, the hit fiction podcast is back. A supernatural thriller presented in immersive 3D binaural audio. The Bridgewater Triangle. There is some kind of mystical force in this region that attracts monsters and paranormal activity. There's something beyond our understanding going on here. Starring Super Naturals, Misha Collins, The Walking Dead's Melissa Ponziow, and Rogue One's Alan Tudyk, written by Lauren Shippen and created by me, Aaron Mankey. Listen to Bridgewater on the iHeart

radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.