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Speaker 1: I hear you. Thanksgiving is pretty packed with tradition. But

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Speaker 1: did you know that a lot of those traditions, everything

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Speaker 1: from when it takes place to what we eat to

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Speaker 1: the Macy's parade, kind of happened and then evolved by chance.

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Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele. Thanksgiving rewind Next on the backstory. We're

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Speaker 1: back with the backstory. Thanksgiving is all about food, family, festivity,

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Speaker 1: but most of all, it's about gratitude. But how did

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Speaker 1: the way we celebrate begin? Well, we know the story

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Speaker 1: of the first Thanksgiving back in sixteen twenty one, but

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Speaker 1: family feasts with turkey, overeating, parades, everything else all came

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Speaker 1: about a whole lot later. The whole idea of a

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Speaker 1: feast this time of year actually originated with immigrants who

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Speaker 1: were used to harvest festivals in late autumn in their

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Speaker 1: mother countries, particularly Europe. Now, as for what we eat,

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Speaker 1: it turns out the first Thanksgiving in our parts may

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Speaker 1: or may not have turkey. Historians say that the first

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Speaker 1: feast probably was likely roasted deer, ducks and geese, but

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Speaker 1: not so much turkey. There were a lot of wild

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Speaker 1: turkeys across the Northeast in those early days, but the

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Speaker 1: feast was more about whatever was close at hand. Eventually,

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Speaker 1: on farms, turkeys were only raised for meat, unlike cattle

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Speaker 1: or even chickens, which provided milk and eggs, so turkeys

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Speaker 1: were a little more handy and more expendable for the

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Speaker 1: dinner table. Ultimately, though, one of the drivers for roasted

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Speaker 1: turkey was actually the popularity of a British story from

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Speaker 1: Charles Dickens, a Christmas carol where a giant turkey is

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Speaker 1: celebrated as the ultimate Christmas feast. The story, published in

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Speaker 1: eighteen forty three, was so intensely popular, not just in

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Speaker 1: England but here in the States it made turkey the

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Speaker 1: star of the show for most feasts by the mid

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Speaker 1: eighteen fifties. Now, why do we celebrate Thanksgiving when we celebrate?

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Speaker 1: Through the seventeen hundred and into the eighteen hundreds, days

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Speaker 1: of Thanksgiving were set aside at various times, most likely

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Speaker 1: in October. But in eighteen sixty three Abraham Lincoln declared

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Speaker 1: Thanksgiving a national holiday, and he set it for the

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Speaker 1: last Thursday in November, coinciding with the dates that the

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Speaker 1: Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth two hundred and forty two years earlier.

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Speaker 1: But it wasn't until nineteen thirty nine that Thanksgiving was

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Speaker 1: permanently set as the fourth Thursday in November, And of

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Speaker 1: course that was to stretch the holiday shopping season in

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Speaker 1: those years when Thanksgiving may have come almost a week

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Speaker 1: later in the month. And what about the iconic Macy's

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Speaker 1: Thanksgiving Day parade. Well, if you're like me, you have

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Speaker 1: vivid memories of sitting in front of the TV Thanksgiving

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Speaker 1: morning watching the parade while your mom and dad or

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Speaker 1: various relatives began the process of getting the turkey in

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Speaker 1: the oven. I know for me, it wouldn't feel like

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Speaker 1: Thanksgiving without a peek at the parade. Right, The parade

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Speaker 1: actually goes back almost one hundred years. It's nineteen twenty four,

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Speaker 1: the Roaring twenties in the heart of New York City.

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Speaker 1: Macy's department store wanted to celebrate its success and also

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Speaker 1: thank customers for their shopping loyalty. Inspired by festive European traditions,

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Speaker 1: Macy's employees, lots of recent immigrants among them, suggested a

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Speaker 1: really beautiful parade. Imagine the scene. Brilliant costumes, floats made

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Speaker 1: mostly with flowers, and marching bands. In those days, there

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Speaker 1: were no balloons, so they borrowed animals for the parade

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Speaker 1: from the Central Park Zoo. Yeah, there were elephants, camels,

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Speaker 1: and bears marching down New York City streets with two

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand people on the sidelines. Yikes. That

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Speaker 1: kind of sets up for some trouble, right. The parade

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Speaker 1: route was six miles long. It was a huge way

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Speaker 1: to kick off the holiday season, and it grew every year,

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Speaker 1: but nineteen twenty seven was a pivotal year. That was

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Speaker 1: when they introduced the first giant balloon to replace the

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Speaker 1: hard to manage animals. Felix the Cat was the first balloon,

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Speaker 1: although it wasn't helium filled, Handlers held it up by

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Speaker 1: poles and walked it through the city streets. That would

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Speaker 1: have been a big job. By the nineteen thirties, helium

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Speaker 1: allowed the balloons to soar, and each year more balloons

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Speaker 1: representing the pop culture of the day appear. Now, the

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Speaker 1: thing about the parade is it's pretty much always been there,

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Speaker 1: in good times and bad. The depression years were difficult,

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Speaker 1: but Macy's continued with it since it provided a much

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Speaker 1: needed escape and a little bit of happiness for folks.

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Speaker 1: Right World War II paused the parade from nineteen forty

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Speaker 1: two to nineteen forty four, when the rubber and helium

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Speaker 1: for the balloons were donated to the war effort. But

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Speaker 1: on its return in nineteen forty five, it was on

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Speaker 1: TV for the very first time. Not a lot of

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Speaker 1: people had TV, but if they did, that was the moment.

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Speaker 1: Families across the country were able to experience the magic.

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Speaker 1: It's such an important part of our traditions. Even the

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Speaker 1: pandemic didn't totally shut down the parade. In what was

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Speaker 1: a stealth operation to keep crowds from gathering, Macy's brought

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Speaker 1: various floats and balloons to different areas of the city

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Speaker 1: over a number of days and film segments ahead of time,

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Speaker 1: then stitched it all together for a broadcast that calmed

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Speaker 1: people's nerves. The parade has become a cultural touchstone, linking

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Speaker 1: generations by reflecting our heritage and also the times in

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Speaker 1: which we live. From the Roaring twenties to the digital age,

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Speaker 1: the parade has been a constant on Thanksgiving Morning, evolving

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Speaker 1: with us while maintaining its wonder and excitement and letting

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Speaker 1: us share some innocence. So however you celebrate Thanksgiving. Whoever

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Speaker 1: you're with, whatever you're feasting on, remember that Thanksgiving is

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Speaker 1: simply a day to think about what you're grateful for.

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Speaker 1: Happy Thanksgiving. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production

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Speaker 1: of iHeartMedia and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.

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Speaker 1: Our executive producer is Steve Goldstein of Amplified Media. We're

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Speaker 1: out with new episodes twice a week. Thanks for listening

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Speaker 1: to the Backstory, the pieces of history you didn't know

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Speaker 1: you needed to know.