The first Thanksgiving feast in 1621 lasted for three days – and it looked nothing like the “traditional” meal we enjoy. No turkey (which didn’t become popular until the 19thcentury), no corn on the cob (they grew only Indian corn, which is used to make cornmeal), no cranberry sauce (which wasn’t invented until maybe 1670), and no pumpkin pie (though pumpkin may have made an appearance). According to Smithsonian.com, “Wildfowl was there. Corn in grain form for bread or for porridge was there. Venison was there.” Other than those three documented items, historians can only guess at the rest of the food shared by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians.
