The holidays are right around the corner, and this Thursday, November 26th is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving for many, traditionally revolves around family, friends, and delicious food. This Thanksgiving might be a little different than the previous years for many but here are some interesting facts and trivia about Thanksgiving.
- The first Thanksgiving is commonly considered to be in 1621 and Thanksgiving lasts three days. The event lasted three days because the settlers’ first corn harvest proved to be successful, Governor Bradford reportedly invited the Plymouth Colonists’ Native American allies to come and enjoy.
- Thanksgiving became an annual holiday under Abraham Lincoln. In 1863. Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November to be Thanksgiving.
- Americans prepare 46 million turkeys for Thanksgiving each year. The Butterball Turkey Talk Line answers almost 100,000 calls and text messages each season for all your cooking needs.
- On Thanksgiving Day, Americans eat an estimated 50 million pumpkin pies on Thanksgiving. According to The American Pie Council, more Americans prefer apple pie as their number one choice and pumpkin pie comes in second.
- Only male turkeys can gobble. Female turkeys make a cackle noise.
- Thanksgiving Dinner inspired Swanson to make the first TV dinners. In 1953, a Swanson employee accidently ordered 260 tons of Turkey, and got the inspiration to create prepared dinners and the tv dinners became a hit in American households. Within the first year, over 10 million tv dinners were sold and the industry was born.
- The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was in 1924 with over 250,000 thousand people in attendance throughout the streets of New York City.
- John F. Kennedy was the first president on record to unofficially pardon a turkey in 1963 but it was not until 1987 that the Reagan Administration pardoned a turkey as a joke. Despite it being a joke, in 1989 George H Bush made it an annual tradition and each president following him has carried on the tradition.
- Minnesota is the state that raises the most turkeys, followed by North Carolina and Arkansas.
For more Thanksgiving facts and trivia, click here to read more.
