Carving Out the Truth: Are Turkey Hats for Real?
By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
You see them in store windows and on classroom walls. You’ve probably seen them for so long, you don’t notice them. Turkeys are everywhere for Thanksgiving. But did you ever notice the curious Pilgrim hats with buckles on top of their heads?
Pilgrims today would have been considered a strict religious order, almost like a sect. They believed in Puritan-like dress, which was very somber and plain in an effort to be humble and not frivolous. The Amish today have similar beliefs. They don’t have any adornments on clothing, which includes buttons and zippers. So what’s with the buckle?
It seems the Pilgrims were not as strict as the Amish with decorations. Actually, the buckle is an historic relic. Before Puritans in England adopted the Pilgrim hat, which by definition was worn by ANYONE who took a pilgrimage, it was taller and had a wider brim. It was also called a cockle hat. The cockleshell, or scallop, was a badge of honor for making a Christian pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostela in Spain. Over time the scallop turned into feathers and buckles.
The most curious thing about the Pilgrim hat is that artists in modern times make it seem like only those who came here from England on ships in the mid-1600s wore it. That’s not true. It was actually very popular. Also the hats are always depicted as jet black, but black dye was very expensive. Pilgrims actually wore a lot of brown instead. The Pilgrim hat that came to North America was also shorter and rounder than what we see on turkey heads.
Those birds’ heads are so tiny that maybe a bigger hat is warranted to balance them out! But it might be nice to revise our country’s icons to make it more authentic.
Not that I’m trying to change everyone’s idea of the Pilgrims. But it is food for thought, er Thanksgiving! Have a happy one!
Veronica MacDonald Ditko is originally from the Jersey Shore, but married and settled in northern New Jersey. Her journalism career started a decade ago after studying Psychology and Anthropology in Massachusetts. She has written for several newspapers and magazines including The Daily Hampshire Gazette, The Springfield Union News and Sunday Republican, Happi, Chemical Week, The Hawthorne Press, The Jewish Standard, Suite101.com and more.