The First Thanksgiving and Indeed-La
From Forgotten English . . .
Indeed-la: The exclamation of a whining Puritan. Shakespeare uses the phrase, the right use of which has not been previously explained. (James Halliwell’s Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855.)
The First Thanksgiving
American folklore historians generally consider the first Thanksgiving dinner to have taken place in the fall of 1621 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The early Puritan celebrations were anything but lavish, focusing on restraint in contrast to the overindulgence of today.
Many of the dishes now consumed at this most American of meals were not part of the first holiday meal, including sweet potatoes, yams, and white potatoes, which would be introduced later from South America.
As the settlers were near the Atlantic, cod and other ocean fish, eels, mussels, claims, and crabs were standard fare, and so corn-on-the-cob, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie would also have to wait for later times. It was not until 1863, when Abraham Lincoln designated the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving, that this date was established.
Labels: History
posted by The Catechizer and The Deacon | 6:05 AM
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