There’s no question, Thanksgiving is a great holiday. You get to down piles of food with friends and family and be thankful for all the opportunities that made it possible. But I wanted to address some common Thanksgiving “legends” to see if they were true or not.
1. The tryptophan in turkey makes you sleepy.
This is partially true… Turkey does contain tryptophan, an amino acid that indirectly helps regulate sleep. However, all meat contains tryptophan, and in roughly the same levels as turkey. Turkey is not loaded with the stuff any more than chicken, beef, or pork. In fact, by weight, cheddar cheese contains more tryptophan than turkey. It’s more likely that the large amount of food, especially carbs (potatoes, stuffing, bread, pies, etc), is what really induces the “food coma.”
2. The Pilgrims invented Thanksgiving.
Not exactly. We traditionally recognize the 3-day feast at the Plymouth Plantation colony in 1621 to be the “first” Thanksgiving, but there is evidence to suggest that similar harvest celebrations were common in Europe during that time period. There is also growing support for a Florida Thanksgiving that took place in 1565, where 600 Spanish settlers feasted and held a Thanksgiving Mass to celebrate their safe journey across the Atlantic.
3. Abraham Lincoln invented Thanksgiving.
In 1863, Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday, set on the last Thursday of November. The thinking was that we could use a day of celebration and reflection during the midst of a bloody civil war. Prior to his proclamation, Thanksgiving was primarily celebrated in New England.
But other presidents issued their own Thanksgiving proclamations before Lincoln:
- George Washington in 1789 and 1795
- John Adams in 1789 and 1799
- James Madison in 1814
For whatever reason, these were considered “one-time” deals and Thanksgiving didn’t take hold as a national, ongoing holiday until Lincoln.
4. Today’s Thanksgiving Date
In 1939, amid a bleak economy and war in Europe, President Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the second-to-last Thursday in November. Why?
The reasoning was that a one-week change wouldn’t offend anyone, and would have the added benefit of giving shoppers an extra week to buy Christmas presents. During that time, it was considered inappropriate to advertise Christmas items before Thanksgiving. So the change really demonstrated the power of the retail sector in influencing policy!
Apparently some folks weren’t too happy with FDR’s break with Lincoln’s tradition, especially given this ulterior economic motive, and took to calling the new holiday “Franksgiving.” A couple years later, Congress officially set the date of Thanksgiving to be the 4th Thursday in November.
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