Sybil Bruncheon’s “Our Thanksgiving Heritage:... The Early Years!!...

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.... Yes, Friends, although we associate Thanksgiving with our own fun-loving pilgrims from the 1600s, in fact other civilizations had their own earlier versions of "Thanksgiving". Did you know that in ancient Egypt, there was a famous tradition of giving thanks in the Fall season for the bounteous harvests granted by the Nile river?... The people prepared their own feasts comprising yam-beetle casseroles with a river-reed bouquet-garni and minced mud-minnow mousse. Also wild asparagus spears with goat butter, Babylonian/Brussels sprouts grilled with baby sparrows wrapped in a flaky papyrus phyllo, delta oyster and clam stuffing inside a turkey buzzard, and relish made from pharaoh berries and citron soaked in natron...(or was it the other way round??) ....and Amenhotep's favorite dish; "Franks in Frankincense"!!...

The main difference between their tradition and ours was that their feast was made for the next life and was displayed for the celebrants in a special case where the dinner was then mummified by holy priests and special ..um... "meal mummifiers". ...oh, and another difference... the lady of the house would actually wear the turkey on her head until it was time for burial!!! The Romans imitated much of what the Egyptians had started, which is probably the origin of what later became Turkey Tetrazzini....Festive, wasn't it?!? 

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