Saturday, November 17, 2012

Cornucopia...Corn-o-wha?

Well friends, Thanksgiving is next week and I'm feeling pretty grateful; how about you?

Which got me thinking of all the festive things we learned about in grade school, my favorite being:

Turkey Hands...I'm just gonna wait while y'all click on that.  Impressive huh?  I especially like the turkey hands on chest t-shirt and this little class project:

Some teacher must have been reading Fifty Shades of Grey during recess and felt inspired to create this masterpiece.

I also remember discussing the Cornucopia every November, as if it were a totally natural, commonplace thing:

2nd Grader:
We decorated our cornucopias today.  Have you even heard of them before?
3rd Grader:
Duh, we made like fifty cornucopias in first grade and twenty in second.  We've moved on to bigger and better things this year.
2nd Grader :
Like what?
3rd Grader:
Like Pilgrim hats.  And Indian headdresses.

Yes indeed, we have moved on to bigger and better Thanksgiving things such as eating, drinking, tryptophan, and more eating.

But I can't for the life of me remember what a cornucopia is or what it represents.

Googling "cornucopia thanksgiving" provided several magical 1-800 Flowers arrangement pics, and then what I was hoping to find:

Also known as the horn of plenty, it's from way way way back when, but we really associate it with Thanksgiving.

But that was all I found.

Wasn't it a gift or something from the natives?

Googled "cornucopia thanksgiving gift indians" and found this:

No one knows when the first Thanksgiving truly was, and apparently the cornucopia has just been hanging out as the symbol for that holiday.  All I can discern is that it comes from ancient Greece where it would have been made from a goat's horn, and nowadays is typically a basket, full of squash and other seasonal veggie bounty. 

Perhaps that's why I couldn't remember the significance of the cornucopia.

It's simply a centerpiece.

And just for that, I'm gonna make one this year.  Happy Tofurky day!

No comments:

Post a Comment