EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – There is no tradition finer in America than the holiday that is Thanksgiving! Bringing us all together to eat too much, watch football, and try to stay awake while the old folks tell us their stories. But how did it all start?

In this Virtually Rick hold on to your ears because the truth may astound you. It’s time to talk Turkey! So let’s get virtual.

MORE HOLIDAY STORIES:

• Tips to Avoid Holiday-Feasting Weight Gain
• Beverly Hilton Offers First Save the Turkey Vegan Brunch

We’re taught the first-ever Thanksgiving was in 1621, the Plymouth colony, Massachusetts, right? Actually historians now point to the first-ever Thanksgiving about two years earlier, with English settlers arriving at Virginia on their ship, the Margaret, December 4, 1619. Some historians believe that the first-ever-EVER Thanksgiving was even earlier in 1565 when the Spanish arrived at St. Augustine in Florida and shared a celebratory meal with the native Timucuans. Ahh History, you saucy Mistress!

Thanksgiving has its roots in harvest festivals where people for thousands of years around the world celebrated and gave thanks for nature’s bounty in their fields, it’s also quite similar to the Jewish Harvest festival of Sukkot. Native Americans had a long tradition of giving thanks with regular ceremonies linked to the crop cycle before WE turned up with our candied yams. In 1621 they celebrated for three days. Hopefully they didn’t run out of gravy.

Pardon my turkey, but it wasn’t until 1863 that, thanks to the Author of the nursery rhyme, “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” Sarah Joespha Hale finally managed to complete her 36-year campaign of bugging everyone to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Abraham Lincoln finally gave in and created the yearly festival whilst the Civil War was still in full tilt as a way to help, “heal the wounds of a nation.”

But what did they eat? Well, in 1619 they were a religious lot and under Anglican tradition that they would probably have fasted rather than stuffed their faces. But, in the feast of 1621 there’s no mention of Turkey or even pie because they didn’t have an oven. It was most likely wild fowl: duck, goose also venison, cornmeal, pumpkin, cranberries, but definitely no sweet potatoes.

Why do we watch football? Well in 1621 they had games and military exercises. But 13 years after Lincoln created Thanksgiving, Yale and Princeton duked it out and from then on it was picked as the date for college football championships starting a yearly tradition we all still enjoy today.  

Thanksgiving as a family and friend celebration has evolved to embrace the fact that we live further and further apart so we use it as a way to join together. So now you know. History is certainly important, but all that matters this year and every year is that you have a very happy, peaceful, and delicious Thanksgiving - from all of us here at Spectrum News 1.