Christmas turkeys have a long and tough history. They deserve all the pardoning they can get.
They spent the rest of the year strutting, clucking and gobbling, terrorising the dogs and running off strangers unwise enough to come down the drive without arming themselves with a stout stick.Credit:December, though, meant Christmas.My grandmother, raised in the north of England, demanded that a roasted turkey occupy the sacred centre of the long table that served as the seat of her family Christmas feast.
Only a few weeks ago, the outgoing president, Joe Biden, “pardoned” two turkeys at the White House ahead of Thanksgiving. Lucky birds.Forty-six million less fortunate turkeys are consumed in the US during Thanksgiving, and many millions more at Christmas. An easy stunt, really, when tens of millions of birds faced the oven or the giant deep fryer, this being America.
A worshipper prays next to the grotto believed to be the spot where Jesus was born at the Church of Nativity. Bethlehem was quiet last year and is expected to be even quieter this year due to the war in Gaza.Christians once streamed to Bethlehem for Christmas. Last Christmas and this, they’ve stopped coming, and reportedly no Christmas tree is being hoisted in its Manger Square.
The birds – which we call guinea fowls – became known in England as Turkey-cocks for the simple reason that they were traded through what was known as the land of the Turks.
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