The First Official Turkey Day

After washing the cobblestones of Paris in blood, France’s Revolutionaries began to passionately rationalize all aspects of daily life. Their metric system soared to popularity over Louis XVI’s dead body. They also prettily and scientifically renamed the months – and even days – of the year. The tail of October and top of November got stuffed into a new month dubbed “Brumaire”, for the autumn fogs. That renaming flumped. Years later, though, North Americans began to give Thanksgiving Day the same cozy, secular nom de plume as the enlightened Revolutionaries had given the 15th of Brumaire. “Dindon”, the first official Turkey Day.

Image: Calendar leaf for Brumaire from Irish Hérault