Thanksgiving Facts and Trivia

Thanksgiving Day is a very important day. There are many things that are especially related to the celebrations of the Thanksgiving Day. These include Thanksgiving turkey trivia, pilgrims, thanksgiving proclamation, thanksgiving as a national holiday and other things. Here are some interesting facts about Thanksgiving that each of us should know about:

1 The first Thanksgiving was celebrated way back during the Plymouth Pilgrims in the fall of 1621.This celebration lasted for three days and included food and games.

2 The first Thanksgiving feast was held to thank the Lord for sparing the lives of the survivors of the Mayflower, who landed at Plymouth Rock in North America on December 11, 1620. The survivors included four adult women and almost forty percent children.

3 The pilgrims sailed on the ship, which was known by the name of 'Mayflower'. The drink that the Puritans brought with them in the Mayflower was the beer.

4 The Wampanoag chief Massasoit and ninety of his tribesmen were also invited to the first thanksgiving feast. Governor William Bradford invited them for helping the Pilgrims surviving and teaching them the skills of cultivating the land.

5 In 1789 when George Washington was the president he proclaimed the first National Day of Thanksgiving.

6 The state of New York officially made Thanksgiving Day an annual custom in 1817.

7 Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor, started a Thanksgiving campaign in 1827 and it was the result of her efforts that in 1863 Thanksgiving was observed as a day for national thanksgiving and prayer.

8 On October 3,1863 Abraham Lincoln announced Thanksgiving to be national holiday.

9 Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States and on the second Monday in October in Canada.

10 President Franklin D. Roosevelt restored Thursday before last of November as Thanksgiving Day in the year 1939. He did so to make the Christmas shopping season longer and thus stimulate the economy of the state.

11 Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States. But it was Thomas Jefferson who opposed him. It is believed that Franklin then named the male turkey as 'tom' to spite Jefferson.

12 The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition began in the 1920's.

13 The 'wishbone' of the turkey is used in a good luck ritual on Thanksgiving Day.

14 Californians are the largest consumers of turkey in the United States.

15 When the Pilgrims arrived in North America, the clothing of the Native Americans was made of animal skins (mainly deer skin).