Turkey is a very common dish on the dinner table at Thanksgiving. Though many are unsure of the resemblance turkey has in correlation with thanksgiving. An article published by Texas A&M quotes “You might believe it’s because of what the Pilgrims… Ate during their first Thanksgiving feast in 1621. But it has more to do with how Americans observed the holiday in the late 1800s.” Author Ryan C. MacPherson states “Thanksgiving finally became an annual observation in America beginning with President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation of 3 Oct. 1863, which specified the final Thursday of November as a day of national thanksgiving.” Since then we have continued the celebration. 

Many other countries around the world celebrate their Thanksgiving on different days and even months, and According to MARCA Lifestyle, Canada celebrates their Thanksgiving every second Monday of October because Canada’s harvest comes around much sooner than America’s due to Canada being further North. The same traditional foods are served on the dinner table in Canada and the US, and everyone is watching either football or the Thanksgiving Parade, but in Korea, their Thanksgiving traditions and foods are celebrated a little differently. Chuseok, also known as Hangawi, meaning the 15th day of August according to the lunar calendar stated by Britannica, is the day Korea celebrates their Thanksgiving along with a festival known as Chuseok, a mid-autumn harvest festival where families gather to celebrate and revisit their ancestral hometowns. 

Common things to use while brining are apples, citrus fruits, brown sugar, spices, and herbs. There is also a multitude of ways to cook your turkey for thanksgiving. Author Troy Bickham published an article stating “Almost 9 in 10 Americans eat turkey during this festive meal, whether it’s roasted, deep-fried, grilled or cooked in any other way for the occasion.” According to The Daily Meal, turkeys are most frequently roasted, “Roasting is without a doubt the most popular method used to cook a whole turkey.” The safest way to cook a turkey would be in the oven, and the most dangerous way would be to Deep fry. Author Aila Slisco states “Deep-fried turkeys cause an average of five deaths, 60 injuries and over $15 million in property damage every year, according to the New York City Fire Department.” If you are looking forward to cooking a turkey next year, let’s stay away from the deep-fryer.

As we all know, eating turkey around the table is the normal yearly tradition we enjoy celebrating with our families and friends every year, but why is turkey the most popular Thanksgiving food on the table? Turkeys were usually raised for their meat and on farms, and turkeys were always accessible. Turkeys are very large birds, and 1-1 ½ lbs are the normal serving size per person; turkeys can weigh up to 7 lbs- 30 lbs, so you can imagine why turkey is a very popular dish to serve on Thanksgiving. Still, all over the world many different countries celebrate their Thanksgivings differently, such as celebrating different festivals or parades, eating different traditional foods, and celebrating the holiday for different traditional reasons, but one thing everyone’s Thanksgivings has in common is being surrounded by family and friends to celebrate one another. 

https://www.bhg.com/recipe/glazed-roast-turkey/ – picture. “Why Do We Eat Turkey on Thanksgiving?” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia. Slisco, Aila. “This Is Why Frying a Thanksgiving Turkey Is so Dangerous.” Newsweek, Newsweek, 25 Nov. 2022, https://www.newsweek.com/this-why-frying-thanksgiving-turkey-so-dangerous-1762206. “Ch’usŏk.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chusok. Why Does Canada Celebrate Thanksgiving in October?, MARCA, 23 Nov. 2022, https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/world-news/2022/11/23/637e00b422601dd45a8b4609.html. https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/canada/articles/how-thanksgiving-in-canada-is-different-from-the-united-states/. Paskevics, Emily. “How Thanksgiving in Canada Is Different from the United States.” How Thanksgiving in Canada Is Different From the United States, The Culture Trip, 26 Aug. 2017. Serban, Adina. “Thanksgiving around the World.” Thanksgiving Around The World, Chef’s Pencil , 22 Nov. 2022, https://www.chefspencil.com/thanksgiving-around-the-world/. Clark, Caitlin. “Why Is Turkey the Main Dish on Thanksgiving?” Texas A&M Today, The Conversations, 1 Dec. 2022, https://today.tamu.edu/2022/11/15/why-is-turkey-the-main-dish-on-thanksgiving/. MacPherson, Ryan C. “Our Thanksgiving Holiday in Historical Perspective.” Our Thanksgiving Holiday in Historical Perspective, Ryan C. MacPherson, https://www.ryancmacpherson.com/hist-207/72-thanksgiving-in-historical-perspective.html.