Why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving?

Turkey is a new world food. It is easier to hunt than deer, and is large enough to be appealing as a food for a feast. I think over the years it has become symbolic of the new things that the Pilgrims came across in the New World.

Because the Pilgrims were wayy too slow to catch any other type of meat, so thats why we, to this day, chase around turkeys to put on our dinner tables for thanksgiving dinner.

Well, the only two items that we know the pilgrims ate are wild fowl and venison. I have been researching this question as well because my eighth grade students have been asking the same question. One answer I found is that Queen Elizabeth delighted in the taste of turkey. When she found out the Spanish Armada had sailed to fight her navy, she ordered a second turkey at the dinner table. It became a favorite of the people in England; thus, they started this tradition of eating turkey during a meal to give thanks. This would make sense since wild fowl was in abundance.

Because during those times mostly in America other than deer, and bison, turkey was seemed as very plentiful and festive in a way. But a lot of things served today weren't in thanksgiving like pies because there wasn't enough sugar.

i would imagine that's a given, wild turkey would have been the game of the season. i suspect they had fish and maybe some other type of game as well.