Was Plymouth Really First?

The classic Thanksgiving story usually starts in 1621, with Pilgrims and Wampanoag people sharing a harvest feast in what is now Massachusetts. That event is important, but it is not the only contender for “first Thanksgiving” on the continent.

Spanish colonists in what is now Florida held a thanksgiving mass and shared food with Indigenous people at St. Augustine in 1565, more than fifty years before Plymouth. Other early thanksgiving style observances took place in Newfoundland in 1578 and in the Southwest, including a 1598 event along the Rio Grande in what is now Texas. None of these turned into a national tradition, but they show that people were holding religious or harvest thanksgivings long before the Plymouth story took over school textbooks.

Historians are not completely united about which of these should count as the “first Thanksgiving”, and in some ways the debate misses the point. Each of these observances reflects its own mix of religion, politics, and survival. The modern American holiday grew out of later efforts to create a unifying national celebration, which is why Plymouth, rather than St. Augustine or the Rio Grande, ended up in most official retellings.

How Leftover Turkey Helped Invent the TV Dinner

One of my favorite Thanksgiving facts is that an entire product category seems to trace back to a massive turkey miscalculation. In 1953, Swanson reportedly found itself stuck with around 260 tons of frozen turkey that did not sell during the holiday season. The birds were sitting in refrigerated rail cars, and the company needed a way to turn that mistake into something useful.

A salesman suggested packaging slices of turkey with side dishes in compartmented aluminum trays, similar to what airlines were using. Swanson branded the result as a convenient heat and eat dinner. The timing lined up perfectly with the growing popularity of television, and the phrase “TV dinner” soon became a household term. Whether or not every detail of the origin story has been polished a bit in the retelling, the basic idea is the same. A Thanksgiving inventory problem helped launch a whole era of frozen meals.

The President Who Would Not Issue A Thanksgiving Proclamation

Today, it is hard to imagine a president skipping Thanksgiving. In the early years of the United States, however, Thanksgiving observances were irregular and often tied to specific events like military victories. George Washington and John Adams both issued thanksgiving proclamations, but when Thomas Jefferson took office in 1801, he intentionally did not.

Jefferson did not seem to dislike the idea of gratitude. His concern was about the boundary between church and state. Official thanksgiving days at the time were explicitly religious, usually framed as days of prayer and public worship. Jefferson believed that having the federal government declare such a day blurred the line between civil government and religion. Because of that, he refused to issue national thanksgiving proclamations while he was president, and that decision helped give him a reputation as the one chief executive who sat out the holiday.

“Franksgiving” And the Year of Two Thanksgivings

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to do something that seems minor on paper. He moved Thanksgiving from the traditional last Thursday in November to the second to last Thursday. The goal was to lengthen the Christmas shopping season during a slow economy.

The reaction was anything but minor. Some states followed the new date, others stuck with the old one, and a few observed both. Critics nicknamed the change “Franksgiving” and accused Roosevelt of trampling tradition just to boost retailers. For several years, Americans lived with a confusing patchwork of dates until Congress finally stepped in and designated the fourth Thursday in November as the official federal Thanksgiving holiday.

The whole episode is a good reminder that even something as simple as the date on the calendar can turn into a national argument once you attach food, travel, and tradition to it.

The Modern Turkey Pardon Is Newer Than You Might Think

Every year now, news footage shows the president “pardoning” a turkey. It is easy to assume that this is a centuries old ritual, but the modern ceremony is relatively recent.

Turkeys have been presented to presidents since the mid 20th century, and the practice of sparing at least one bird evolved over time. The White House tradition of an official, public “pardon” with a named turkey on the lawn dates to the late 1980s, when President George H. W. Bush used that phrasing and helped lock the ritual in. Since then, the ceremony has taken on a life of its own, complete with speeches, turkey biographies, and plenty of jokes about political mercy.

Does Turkey Really Make You Sleepy?

It would not be a Thanksgiving fact list without the classic question about turkey and drowsiness. The usual explanation is that turkey contains tryptophan, an amino acid that the body can convert into serotonin and then melatonin. Since melatonin is associated with sleep, turkey often takes the blame for that post dinner slump.

There is a twist. Turkey does contain tryptophan, but not in unusually high amounts compared to other meats. Some cheeses, nuts, and other foods actually contain more. Studies and nutrition databases both suggest that the amount of tryptophan you get from a typical turkey serving is nowhere near the dose used in sleep studies or supplements.

So why do so many people feel like napping after Thanksgiving dinner? The more likely explanation is the entire meal and the day around it. A big plate loaded with carbohydrates, rich desserts, possibly some alcohol, and the general stress and travel of the holiday all contribute to a normal “food coma” effect. The turkey is along for the ride, but it is probably not the main culprit.

Why These Facts Matter

On the surface, these are just bits of trivia. Underneath, they say a lot about how holidays work. Competing “first Thanksgiving” claims show how different regions try to tell their own origin stories. Swanson’s frozen turkey problem turning into TV dinners shows how business decisions can shape everyday life. Jefferson and Roosevelt remind us that even a day of thanks can trigger debates about religion, economics, and tradition.

The turkey pardon and the tryptophan myth show how easily new customs and half true explanations can slide into the culture and feel ancient. For me, that mix of history, marketing, science, and myth is exactly what makes Thanksgiving such a rich topic. It is not just a single story from 1621. It is a long, messy, and surprisingly weird evolution that is still going on every November.

Sources

• National Park Service on the St. Augustine thanksgiving of 1565
• Smithsonian history of Swanson and the TV dinner
• History.com on Thomas Jefferson and Thanksgiving proclamations
• U.S. National Archives on FDR and the 1939 Thanksgiving change
• Recent medical overviews debunking the turkey tryptophan myth