Thanksgiving and Pumpkin Lore and What Wine to Select for Thanksgiving Dinner
In the early part of the last century, women were expected to carve the turkey, eating with one's knife was considered perfectly polite, and the Thanksgiving holiday was usually celebrated in December. In fact, Thanksgiving might not have become a national holiday at all were it not for the determined efforts of one woman.

Most of today's Thanksgiving traditions have changed little over time. "All over America, we eat the same kinds of foods and follow many of the same family rituals that New England farm families did in the 1700s and 1800s," said Jack Larkin, director of research and collections at Old Sturbridge Village.

However, Larkin and the living history museum offer some lesser known facts and interesting history about this great American holiday:

Thanksgiving did not become a national holiday until 1863, during the Civil War.

Thanksgivings for abundant autumn harvests had been primarily a New England tradition for many decades. The governor of each state issued his own proclamation of the holiday. A couple of weeks in advance, ministers read the proclamation to their congregations during worship services. The date of the holiday might vary from state to state and from one year to the next.
Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of the popular magazine Godey's Lady's Book, waged a long campaign for Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Her advocacy and the need to find some "good news" during wartime convinced Abraham Lincoln to proclaim a national Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November 1863 -- a time she had recommended as one when "the agricultural labors of the year are generally completed."

How table manners have changed...

According to the etiquette of the 1830s, you showed good table manners by tucking your napkin under your chin, and eating with your knife. Women were expected to carve the turkey so that the feast would go smoothly. Sarah Josepha Hale reminded ladies "especially to make carving a study and... perform the task allotted to them to prevent remark." Our current custom of assigning this task to the male head of household came later, as did the then outlandish European notion of "feeding oneself with a fork."

Thanksgiving was the most popular time to get married.

In the 1830s, rural weddings still followed seasonal rhythms, and June weddings were almost unknown. Couples exchanged vows either in the early spring or waited until after the harvests in November or December. "With families already gathered together, Thanksgiving was a favorite time chosen by brides, who were traditionally married at home."

Thanksgiving meant back-to-school for 1830s children and more leisure time for parents.

With the harvest complete, children began school the day after Thanksgiving and attended through March. Thanksgiving marked the end of the hardest work on the farm, and adults had more time and energy to go to dances, visit and socialize.

History and Folklore

Pumpkin is truly a Native American food. The pumpkin was a staple of the American Indians and was eaten roasted, boiled and stewed. At the first Thanksgiving feast, in 1621, pumpkin was on the menu along with the turkey, corn and other American dishes. Pumpkins, thought to have been named for the medieval European squash "pompion", were used along with persimmons in a fermented brew which was flavored with maple sugar by the innovative Yankees. One legend has it that one Connecticut colony delayed Thanksgiving because the molasses used to make the pumpkin pie of the day was not readily available.
Several American writers have referred lovingly to the pumpkin. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving refers to a pumpkin jack-o'-lantern. Thoreau and James Whitcomb Riley both made reference to pumpkins in their writings.
The term "pumpkin head" is said to be derived from a law which required men to have haircuts which conformed to the contours of a cap placed over the head. Pumpkin shells were sometimes substituted for scarce caps.
Mother Goose even refers to pumpkins in "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater. And everyone has heard of Cinderella's pumpkin coach!

What wine shall we have for Thanksgiving?

Assuming a gathering of friends but not of wine snobs, you want good wines that will complement the food but not be the star attraction. Anyway, star attraction wines - well aged clarets, cabernets, or burgundies - don't mesh well with Thanksgiving Day. Granted, roast turkey would go well with most wines. Turkey is not as much of a blank canvas as roast chicken, as it has stronger flavors and firmer texture, but it still will work well with most wines. Instead, the problem children are all the other stuff we eat at Thanksgiving. A lot of strong flavors (both sweet and savory) - herbed stuffing, yams with those little marshmallows, cranberry in some form, and (lord help us) jello molds. No fine claret or burgundy should have to compete with little marshmallows.
Thanksgiving is a quintessentially American holiday, which means American wines. Wines from Native American grapes and most Franco-American hybrids have a "grapey" flavor that some like, which means we are looking for US versions of vinifera varietals.
Nothing says festive like sparkling wine, so have some domestic sparklers on hand to serve ahead of time and through the meal. An inexpensive wine would be Korbel Natural and if you want to spend a few more dollars you could get a bottle of Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs.
No vinifera wine is more quintessentially American than Zinfandel, besides which the berry and brambly flavors of good Zinfandel (by which I mean the red stuff, not the white stuff) will stand up quite nicely to the strong flavors of the Thanksgiving table. This means looking for a wine from one of the "four R's": Raffanelli, Ravenswood, Ridge, or Rosenblum. The less expensive of them being Ravenswood Vinter's Blend and the top of the line is the Ridge Geyserville. Some strange people only like white wine. This would mean that you would have to have some on hand. Oaky chardonnays will not show well. Go for a more lightly oaked wine, with a lot of herbal flavors. We will start again with the least expensive of the whites being Ca'del Solo Big House White and the more expensive being Robert Mondavi Sauvignon Blanc Stags Leap District.
Whatever your choice of wines, you can be sure that as long as you are with your family or friends, you truly have something to be thankful for.