<P> The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada is a large meal, generally with a large roasted turkey . It is served with a variety of side dishes such as mashed potatoes, stuffing and cranberry sauce . The majority of the dishes in the traditional American version of Thanksgiving dinner are made from foods native to the New World . According to tradition, the Pilgrims learned how to grow these foods from the Native Americans . The Pilgrims were incredibly grateful for these new foods, which is where we get the name Thanksgiving . Today, Thanksgiving dinner is often a time where people reflect on all the things in their lives that they are thankful for . Thanksgiving dinner is the largest eating event in the United States; most people eat more on Thanksgiving than on any other day of the year . </P> <P> Traditionally known as "The First Thanksgiving," the 1621 feast between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag at Plymouth Colony contained waterfowl, venison, ham, lobster, clams, berries, fruit, pumpkin and squash . William Bradford noted that, "besides waterfowl, there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many ." Many of the foods that were included in the first feast have since gone on to become staples of the modern Thanksgiving dinner . Early feasts of the Order of Good Cheer, a French Canadian predecessor to the modern Thanksgiving, featured a potluck dinner with freshly hunted fowl, game and fish hunted and shared by both French Canadians and local natives . </P> <P> The use of the turkey in the US for Thanksgiving precedes Lincoln's nationalization of the holiday in 1863 . Alexander Hamilton proclaimed that "No citizen of the United States should refrain from turkey on Thanksgiving Day ." Benjamin Franklin was said to have high regard for the wild turkey as an American icon, but turkey was actually uncommon at Thanksgiving until the 1800s . By 1857, turkey had become part of the traditional dinner in New England . </P>

Foods eaten at the first american thanksgiving feast in 1621
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