A rock. A sailing ship. A feast.

Those are the three images on which the American Thanksgiving is founded.

The rock – Plymouth rock – came to signify the solidity of the colony that the Pilgrims, a group of disenfranchised religious castaways, managed to build on the shores of what would become the United States.

The sailing ship – the Mayflower – was really a rather old wooden bucket that carried the 102 Pilgrims from Plymouth in England to a new Plymouth in what would eventually be the state of Massachusetts.

And the feast, the most famous image of Thanksgiving that we faithfully attempt to reproduce each year on the fourth Thursday of November?

As depicted above by American painter Jean Leon Geome Ferris, it was a harvest celebration in which the surviving Pilgrims (their first winter had been disastrously hard) gave thanks for a good harvest and offered food to the native Americans who had helped them come through the winter and taught them to plant ‘Indian’ corn.

Probably very idealized, Ferris’ image features oysters (which these days go into many stuffing recipes) as well as some kind of corn stew or bread.

Since there’s no turkey in sight, we’ve thoughtfully added one. Wild turkeys were said to be in abundance in the lands around the early colony, but it isn’t sure that one actually graced the Pilgrims’ tables, though some kind of wild fowl was likely.

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But turkeys with helmets? Or, more specifically, a turkey with the body of a Dutch Orange Nutcase helmet? Highly unlikely.

Still, if we’re counting our blessings tomorrow, a helmet will definitely be part of the mental line up. Protects your brain (and ours), keeps the head warm in winter, and looks great, too.

We’ve got plenty to be thankful for, and hope that you do, too. Have a Nutty Thanksgiving.

Don’t forget our Black Friday sale starts today and goes through Cyber Monday, November 30th. Sale prices up to 67% off.

For more on the origins of Thanksgiving and our nutty Nutcase staff favorites, click here.