Do you know the first Thanksgiving dinner did not include Turkey?

Thanksgiving, thenational holiday may have originated in America but it is widely celebrated in Canada, Puerto Rico, Grenada, and Liberia.

It is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canadaand on fourth of November in the US, and around the same part of the year in other places.

Thanksgiving is a day of thanking for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year.

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The celebrations ofThanksgiving started in 1621 when Plymouth colonists and native Americans shared an autumn harvest feast in the colonies.

While Plymouth colonists weretrying to establish themselves in the North of America, pilgrims of Plymouth harvested corn successfully with the help of Native American allies and to celebrate that successful harvestPlymouth colonistscelebrated Thanksgiving with native Americans.

The second Thanksgiving celebration washeld in 1623 to mark the end of a long drought that had threatenedthat year's harvest and prompted callsfor a religious fast.

Later days of fasting and thanksgiving on an annual or occasional basis became common practice in other New England settlementsas well.

For more than two centuries, Thanksgiving day was celebrated by individual colonies and states until in1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.

Also in contemporary celebrations, desserts like Pumpkin pies and cakes have made their place as traditional dishes but it was not included in the first meal of thanksgiving as pilgrims of Plymouth had no oven and sugar was also kind ofa rare. It later became a tradition of Thanksgiving celebrations. Same applies to cranberry sauce as well which is also a tradition because there is no confirmation that Cranberry sauce was even invented back then.

Similarly having Turkey in feast is also new tradition because there is no written confirmation of pilgrims eating Turkey. It gained traction as the Thanksgiving meal of choice for Americans after Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863.

According to Edward Winslow, author of "Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth,"pilgrims enjoyed five deer as part of their feast and meat category also included fish and shellfish.

So next time when you are having lobster or some oysters instead of Turkey, you can defend your self from being called historically inaccurate.