Celebrated in the United States of America on 26 November, Thanksgiving is a national holiday to give thanks for the blessing of the harvest.

Different forms of the holiday are celebrated on different days in Canada, Brazil, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Liberia.

The Thammasat University Library collection owns a number of books about Thanksgiving traditions.

For many people, Thanksgiving is a time to eat special foods.

For example, a traditional meal on Thanksgiving in some countries includes turkey.

This is probably because years ago, when the pilgrims in America celebrated the first Thanksgiving, they ate wild turkeys.

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Native Americans shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies.

Some other traditional dishes do not date back this far.

Cranberry Sauce is made from cranberries, which grow in the Northeast. They were eaten by the Wampanoag Native American tribe.

Food historians, sociologists, students of folklore, and others may be interested to investigate what past generations have considered appropriate to eat on Thanksgiving.

One online report describes what New York restaurants served as a Thanksgiving meal in the 1800s:

By the late 1800s the holiday — with the turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie that most Americans now think of — had become ubiquitous enough that some of Manhattan’s most elegant hotels and clubs were offering special menus to mark the day.

Here’s a look at what was for Thanksgiving dinner:

Murray Hill Hotel (1891)

The Murray Hill Hotel at 40th Street and Park Avenue made choosing Thanksgiving dinner easy in 1891 with a pared down list of options.

The meal started with cherrystone clams, and then patrons chose either a bisque of oyster-crabs or consummé of chicken for the soup course. The main course of Philadelphia turkey stuffed with chestnuts and served with cauliflower au gratin would fit on modern tables, but the saddle of English mutton with sautéed Brussels sprouts, grilled sweetbreads, and suprême breast of partridge à la Diane are less familiar.

Don’t worry though. Dessert included the familiar New England pumpkin pie as well as mince pie, “fancy” ice cream, cakes and a cup of coffee.Murray Hill Hotel

Broadway Central Hotel (1899)

In 1899, New Yorkers and travelers might have eaten an elegant Thanksgiving dinner — served between 5 and 8 p.m. — in the hotel’s dining room. It started with a selection of consumée quinelles or cream of artichoke soup, followed by a fish course with broiled kingfish or Kennebec Salmon.

The main event would have been Vermont turkey with chestnut stuffing and cranberry sauce, or selectins of roast and game like prime rib, sweetbread braisé, and broiled quail on toast. The dessert course included New England plum pudding with brandy and hard sauce, angel, pound, fruit or almond cake, and, of course, pumpkin pie.

Plaza Hotel (1899)

The menu includes with soups like clear green turtle for 65 cents, fish courses including whitebait sauté with Boston brown bread toast for 50 cents and fried oyster crabs for 75 cents. Diners could get turkey stuffed with chestnuts for 75 cents, as well as other roasts and hot and cold game. The meal would have been rounded out by sweet dishes like baked apple dumpling in hard and brandy sauce or champagne jelly, both 25 cents.

The hotel’s restaurant also served half portions for diners celebrating the holiday solo.

Hotel Manhattan (1900)

The Midtown hotel’s Thanksgiving menu started with oysters and clams, followed by hors d’oeuvres and soup — all for less than a dollar a dish. A fish course included selections like planked bluefish for $1.50 or scallops for 60 cents.

For the main event, there was a lot more than turkey on the table (although diners could order the bird broiled for $2.50 or $1.25 if they were eating alone). Entrees included partridge sauté with grapes for $2, saddle of Canada lamb for $1 and mutton chops for 60 cents. Game, vegetables and cold meats were also on offer. The meal was finished with pumpkin pie for 20 cents, as well as cheese, ice cream and fruits.

National Arts Club (1905)

If you were fortunate enough to be an artist, writer or art aficionado with membership to the National Arts Club at 15 Gramercy Park South, you could have eaten very well in the club’s dining room for Thanksgiving on Nov. 30, 1905.

The meal started with pickles, mollusks, samoset soup and Maine codfish. That was followed by “Pilgrim Pig” with apple sauce and Boston baked beans and turkey with cranberries, onions, lettuce and potatoes.

A dessert course included a selection of “Puritan Pumpkin” or “Mayflower Mince” pie or Chilton cheese and a pudding course with nuts and raisins were topped off with coffee.

As we see, historically, the trend has been to eat too much. A food history website adds further information about traditional dishes such as turkey, stuffing, gravy, biscuits, corn bread, corn pudding, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie, apple pie, chocolate pie, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie:

• Of all the holidays in the year which are generated among us New England people, there is, perhaps no day in the whole holiday vocabulary, that gives a more general source of satisfaction and joy, than…Thanksgiving…turkeys…bacon…chickens fricassied…oyster patties…soup…vegetables…pigeons…quails…bass…wood cock…potatoes…onions…beets…cold-slaw…rice, pies…plumb puddings…”

—“A Thanksgiving Dinner,” Village Register [Dedham, MA] November 24, 1825

• Thanksgiving week, moreover, is the crisis of a turkey’s life…The dinner is the all important item…turkeys, geese, and chickens…stuffed and roasted for the occasion…Then come puddings and pies…among the most prominent of which is that savory dish, peculiar to New England–that sine qua non of a Thanksgiving dinner–the well filled, deep and spacious pumpkin pie. This concludes the feast–and for the remainder of the day, a drowsy dullness is very apt to prevail.”

—“New-Bedford,” New-Bedford Mercury, December 1, 1836

• “Thanksgiving Dinner. Oyster soup, cod, with egg sauce, lobster salad, roast turkey, cranberry sauce, mixed pickles, mangoes, pickled peaches, cold slaw, and celery; boiled ham, chicken pie ornamented, jelly, mashed potatoes browned, tomatoes, boiled onions, canned corn, sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli. Mince, and pumpkin pie, apple tarts, Indian pudding. Apples, nuts, and raisins.”

Jennie June’s American Cookery Book, Jane Cunningham Croly, New York, 1870

• Menu No. 1.

Oysters on the Half Shell

Puff Ball Soup

Olivers, Gherkins, Salted Pistachio Nuts

Fish Souffle, Parisian Potatoes

Roasted Turkey, Oyster Stuffing

Cranberry Sauce

Potato Croquettes, Asparagus Tips

Baked Ham, Champagne Sauce

Spinach

Lettuce, French Dressing, Fried Shrimps

Toasted Water Biscuit

Pumpkin Custard, Cranberry Tart

Fruit

Coffee

• Menu No. 2.

Oysters on the Half Shell

Olives, Salted Almonds

Roast Turkey, Bread Stuffing

Oyster Sauce

Mashed Potatoes, Peas

Cranberry Jelly, Mayonnaise of Celery

Wafers, Neufchatel

Pumpkin

Fruit

Coffee

• Menu No. 3.

Tomato Soup

Salted Almonds

Roasted Duck, Potato Stuffing

Baked Macaroni

Chicken Croquettes, Peas

Celery on Lettuce Leaves with French Dressing

Cheese Fingers

Pumpkin Custard

Fruit

Coffee

—“A Thanksgiving Dinner,” Mrs. S. T. Rorer, Table Talk, November 1890

• “Thanksgiving Dinner.

Like Christmas, Thanksgiving has its own bill of fare which has not been varied for many generations. Roasted turkey, pumpkin, mince and apple custard pies are served in almost all parts of the United States. A heavy breakfast, with chicken pie, and a late dinner are common rules. If shell-fish are in good condition, serve oysters on the half-shell or oyster cocktails as first course; if not, serve a clear soup. The turkey may be stuffed with oysters, or oyster sauce may be used in place of giblet sauce, or scalloped oysters may be served as a side dish. Oysters seem to be a part of the Thanksgiving dinner. Pumpkins, corn, nuts, fruits and bitter-sweet are the choice decorations.

Oysters on the Half-shell

Consomme a la Royal

Celery, Olives

Roasted Turkey, Oyster Sauce

Cranberry Jelly

Potato Croquettes, Cauliflower

Chicken Pie, Scalloped Oysters

Lettuce and Apple Salad, Water Thins Toasted Crackers, Cheese

Coffee.”

—Mrs. Rorer’s Every Day Menu Book, Sarah Tyson Rorer [Arnold and Company:Philadelphia] 1905

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)