New York, Nov 24 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The harvest festival of Thanksgiving is on the 26th of November, this year. And thanksgiving is related to turkey, which can also be said is the main mascot of the festival. There is a wild turkey that has been living in the New York’s Battery Park for 6 years now. The turkey is named ‘Zelda’ and she sure is getting undivided attention from the tourists and the locals, in the run up to Thanksgiving.

“She looks so pretty. I will remember that next time I eat turkey,” said Florida tourist Geeta Persaud, 28, who posed for pictures with the turkey and her friend Lindsay Blair. “My mom is trying to find a fresh turkey. Maybe I can grab this one, put it in my luggage and take it from New York,” Blair joked.

Thanksgiving started around the country in the mid-19th century, with the hope that it would help in healing the North-&-South divide. So, the Thanksgiving menu had to be a mix of the traditional North as well as the South recipes in a bid to placate the feelings of both the communities.

The main course is Turkey with cranberry sauce, because Turkey is an indigenous American bird. It was well known that Native Americans and the early colonists used cranberries to flavor meat, so obviously cranberry sauce had to be used to flavor turkey. And since Americans are great pie lovers so roast turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie became religiously tied to this holiday.

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