Pardoning the turkey…a tradition in the White House passed down by American administrations

The annual presidential pardon of turkeys has become a tradition in November, as distinctly American as the Thanksgiving meal itself.

Every year, during Thanksgiving week, the US President appears at the White House next to a live turkey, or two with funny names, such as “butter” and “bread,” or “corn” and “cob,” and officially “rescues them from becoming part of the holiday feast.”

But the history of this ceremony is more complex than some might imagine.

Presidents have been taking pictures with turkeys since 1947, when the National Turkey Federation and the National Poultry and Egg Council presented, for the first time, a turkey during National Thanksgiving to President Harry Truman, but according to the Truman Library, there are no documents or evidence that Truman pardoned any birds.

“Truman would sometimes point out to reporters that the turkeys he received were intended for the family dinner table,” the library says.

An annual tradition

The modern turkey pardon began as an annual tradition more than 40 years later, during the administration of George H.W. Bush, on November 17, 1989, according to the White House.

“But let me assure you, this beautiful turkey, it’s not going to end up on anyone’s dinner table,” Bush said at the time, referring to the bird named Jerry. “Not this turkey – he’s got a presidential pardon right now – and he’s going to be allowed to live on a children’s farm not far from here.”

In that moment, Bush formalized something that had happened infrequently to Thanksgiving-era presidents for more than a century.

Because presidents often received a turkey as a gift in November, some would discuss eating the bird, while others would informally pledge to pardon it.

Documented case

The first documented case of a president “pardoning” a turkey during Thanksgiving dinner can be traced back to President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. When Lincoln was served a Christmas turkey for dinner, his eight-year-old son, Tad, intervened to prevent it. He joined his father at the White House in 1861, after becoming attached to the bird he named “Jack.”

Lincoln, who himself was an animal lover and had several cats in the White House, complied with his son’s request, and that was the same year that Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation, a national arrangement on the last Thursday of November, in an attempt to achieve unity during the Civil War.

President John F. Kennedy also unofficially pardoned a Rose Garden turkey on November 19, 1963, just three days before it was slaughtered in Dallas, Texas. “Let’s keep it alive,” Kennedy said of the 55-pound bird, which wore a sign around its neck reading “Delicious food, Mr. President.” This was the first modern pardon of a turkey. About “Time”

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Reagan was the first president to use the term “pardon”

More than two decades after President John F. Kennedy’s pardon, Ronald Reagan was the first president to use the term “pardon” when he pardoned his turkey, named “Charlie,” although it was in jest.

At that time, Reagan was trying to divert attention from a scandal affecting his government, and when reporters asked Reagan during the turkey party whether he would pardon those involved in the scandal, Reagan refused to answer, but he sparked laughter by saying: “If the question was about (Charlie) and his future, then I pardoned him.”

. The first documented case of a US president “pardoning” a turkey during Thanksgiving dinner can be traced back to Abraham Lincoln in 1863.

. Every year during Thanksgiving week, the US President appears at the White House alongside a live turkey, or two with funny names.