Interesting and Fun Facts about Thanksgiving Day

Google Doodle celebrates Thanksgiving 2020. Thanksgiving Day will celebrate in the United States of America (USA) on Thursday, November 26, 2020. Thanksgiving is an annual national holiday in the North American region praising the harvest and different blessings of the previous year. Thanksgiving happens every year on the fourth Thursday of November. The day after is otherwise called Black Friday.

Even though this year will appear to be somewhat unique for people around the country, the present Google Doodle—and the fuzzy and feathered friends in it—perceive the spirit of this special holiday: a time for everybody to consider their blessings, appreciate friends and family both all over, and grasp new customs.

thanksgiving 2020
Google Doodle on Thanksgiving 2020

What is Thanksgiving Day?

Thanksgiving Day is a United States national holiday celebrated annually on the fourth Thursday of November. It includes religious and secular aspects, being both a harvest festival and a celebration of family. The origins of Thanksgiving Day are believed to lie in a first harvest celebration held in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. It generally falls between November 22 and November 28.

Thanksgiving Day is the day with the highest food consumption of the year. It is followed by Black Friday which denotes the start of the Christmas shopping season and has become the busiest shopping day and the day with the highest retail turnover of the year in the United States.

The date of US Thanksgiving contrasts from Canadian Thanksgiving, where it is praised on the second Monday of October (around the same day as Columbus Day in the US, which means the two nations have a public holiday on the same day, regardless of whether the two holidays are different).

25 Interesting and Fun Facts about Thanksgiving

  1. The first Thanksgiving was praised in 1621 over a three-day harvest festival. It included 50 Pilgrims, 90 Wampanoag Indians, and lasted three days. It is believed by historians that lone five women were available.
  1. Turkey wasn’t on the menu at the first Thanksgiving. Venison, duck, goose, oysters, lobster, eel, and fish were likely served, close by pumpkins and cranberries (however no pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce!).
  1. Thanksgiving didn’t become a national holiday until more than 200 years after the fact! Broadly known for writing the classic song “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Sarah Josepha Hale was a nineteenth-century essayist and editor who was nicknamed the Mother (or Godmother) of Thanksgiving. Sarah Josepha Hale, the one who wrote “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” convinced Lincoln in 1863 to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in the wake of writing letters for 17 years.
  1. Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday on October 3, 1863.
  1. The history of U.S. presidents absolving turkeys is patchy. Harry Truman is frequently credited with being the first president to pardon a turkey, yet that is not exactly evident. He was the first to get a ceremonial turkey from the National Turkey Federation – and he had it for supper. John F. Kennedy was the first to release a Thanksgiving turkey, followed by Richard Nixon who sent his turkey to a petting zoo. George H.W.
  1. One of the most bizarre Thanksgiving customs is the presidential pardon of one lucky fowl. President George H.W. Bush was the first to do as such in 1989, and the annual custom is still maintained today. Bush is the president who formalized the turkey pardoning tradition in 1989.
  1. In 1989, the 41st president exonerated the first turkey—that is, guaranteed he could never become someone’s supper—ever in the wake of seeing the 50-pound bird looked somewhat antsy at his official Thanksgiving decree. From that point forward, each president has maintained the custom and a few of the turkeys have proceeded to serve an alternate need. In 2005 and 2009, the birds went to Disneyland and Disney World parks to partake in the annual Thanksgiving parades.
  1. The holiday season is a period of festivity, which means toasts upon toasts are made. Before the annual feast even starts, there’s the prior night of Thanksgiving—which has come to be known as one of the booziest days of the year. It’s even come to be known as “Black Wednesday” in certain spots. Bars aren’t the only businesses encountering a blast this night; Uber has even offered free lifts on the night over the past few years.
  1. The presidential pardon of a turkey: Each year, the president of the U.S pardons a turkey and extras it from being had for Thanksgiving supper. The first turkey pardon ceremony began with President Truman in 1947. President Obama acquitted a 45-pound turkey named Courage, who has traveled to Disneyland and served as Grand Marshal of the park’s Thanksgiving Day parade!
  1. President Abe Lincoln said Thanksgiving would be the fourth Thursday in November, however, in 1939 President Roosevelt moved it up a week trusting it would enable the shopping season during the Depression time. It never got on and it was changed back two years after the fact.
  1. The food eaten at the first Thanksgiving feast in 1621 was not too different from our modern standard. The pioneers’ dinner comprised of turkey, venison, waterfowl, lobster, fish, clams, pumpkin, squash, berries, and fruit. Besides the seafood, the vast majority of these foods are still staples of our present-day Thanksgiving meals.
  1. The tradition of football on Thanksgiving started in 1876 with a game between Yale and Princeton. The first NFL games were played on Thanksgiving in 1920.
  1. A century back, Thanksgiving Day fell on November 25 and there were six football games played, as indicated by the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Non-league teams like Elyria Athletics went facing league teams included in standings.
  1. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was initially called the “Macy’s Christmas Parade” to commence the holiday shopping season. Held in 1924, the first parade included monkeys, bears, camels, and elephants obtained from the Central Park Zoo rather than the traditional character balloons we know today.
  1. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade started in 1924 with 400 representatives walking from Convent Ave to 145th street in New York City. No enormous balloons were at this parade, as it included just live animals from Central Park Zoo.
  1. Butterball answers over 100,000 turkey-cooking questions through their Butterball Turkey Hotline every November and December.
  1. Thanksgiving day is the busiest travel day of the year. The American Automobile Association (AAA) has assessed that more than 42 million Americans travel 50 miles or more via vehicle over the holiday weekend. Another 4 million individuals fly to visit their friends and family for the holiday.
  1. Canada’s first Thanksgiving (praised the second Monday in October) can be followed back to 1578 when traveler Martin Frobisher–who had been attempting to locate a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean–celebrated on Baffin Island (present-day Nunavut) to express appreciation to God for surviving the long journey from England through storms and icebergs.
  1. Germany’s early October celebration is called Erntedankfest, or the Harvest Thanksgiving Festival. The festival has a religious part, in any case, similar to its American counterpart, incorporate substantial harvest dinners and parades.
  1. Seen on October 25 in the Caribbean island country of Grenada, the national holiday known as Thanksgiving Day is totally irrelevant to the traditional American celebration.
  1. Formally known as Labor Thanksgiving Day, this Japanese national holiday goes back to the time of Emperor Jimmu, who reigned over the nation from 660-585 BCE. The modern version was set up in 1948, after the finish of World War II.
  1. Celebrated every year on November 23, the holiday honors labor, production, and giving thanks. It’s likewise viewed as a period for thinking about the environment, human rights, and peace.
  1. Thanksgiving in Liberia is generally seen on the first Thursday in November. The holiday began in 1820 when earlier oppressed Africans from America began colonizing the West African nation.
  1. Korea’s Thanksgiving festivity, Chu-Sok (“fall evening”), starts on August 14th and lasts 3 days.
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