도널드 트럼프 미국 대통령(오른쪽)이 미국의 최대 명절 중 하나인 추수감사절을 이틀 앞둔 21일(현지시간) 백악관 앞뜰 로즈가든에서 칠면조 ‘드럼스틱(Drumstick)’이 추수감사절 식탁에 오르지 않도록 사면을 선언하고 있다. 칠면조 사면식은 1957년부터 실시된 백악관의 추수감사절 전통 행사다.
President Donald Trump with first lady Melania Trump, right, and their son Barron Trump, waves after pardoning the National Thanksgiving Turkey Drumstick during a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017.
Every year, at a ceremony at the White House, the American president "pardons" a turkey. Instead of becoming part of a Thanksgiving dinner in the United States, the bird's life is saved. Stories on theorigins(기원)of the presidential turkey "pardon" are numerous. Some of these stories date back to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln during the U.S. Civil War. Edward Lengel is the chief historian of the White House Historical Association. "He (the president) had a son named Ted, who joked with Abraham Lincoln about his pet turkey that he had, who wasstrolling(한가롭게[이리저리] 거닐다)around the votingbooths(투표 용지 기입소)in 1864. And Abraham Lincoln asked why he was strolling around. Is he (the turkey) here to vote?” The boy answered that his turkey could not vote because he was too young. "Therefore," Lengel said, "Abraham Lincoln pardoned his turkey and forgave him the possibility of being killed for the Thanksgiving table." Some people say a later president, Harry Truman, was theoriginator(창설자, 창시자)of the modern-day turkey pardon. But the Truman Library and Museum disputes this claim. Accordingto(...에 따르면) the library's website, workers have found no evidence of "Truman pardoning a turkey that he received as a gift in 1947, or at any other time during his Presidency. " Almost 20 years after Truman's presidency, President John F. Kennedy decided tospare(용서하다, 살려주다.)a turkey brought to the White House for the Thanksgiving meal. He reportedly said: ‘No, I think I’ll pardon this turkey and let it grow.’ Edward Lengel notes that Kennedy was the first president to give an official pardon(용서, 사면). “We know that John F Kennedy definitely began this tradition and it has continued on and off ever since.” After 1981, the custom of sending the pardoned turkey to a farm became accepted practice during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Even if the presidents pardon turkeys before Thanksgiving, they generally still eat a different turkey on the holiday. The bird cooked for the president’s meal is bought with his own money and prepared according to his taste and that of his family.
