Halloween is over, and the next big holiday is Thanksgiving. It is a time when families and friends get together for turkey and all the trimmings, parades, football, friendship and good times. It is also a time when we all eat too much. In the spirit of the holiday here are a few facts you may, or may not, know.
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The first Thanksgiving was held in 1621 and there was no turkey served. Venison, geese, fish and duck was the meal. Also no cranberries or mashed potatoes. The first Thanksgiving included 50 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians and lasted three days.
Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who wrote the classic song “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” convinced President Lincoln in 1863 to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, after writing letters for 17 years campaigning for this to happen.
TV dinners are the result of Thanksgiving. In 1953, Swanson had so much extra turkey (260 tons) that a salesman told them they should package it in aluminum trays with other sides like sweet potatoes — and the first TV dinner was born!
One of the most popular parts of Thanksgiving is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. This will be its 94th year having begun in 1924 with 400 employees marching. There were no floats or large balloons and featured only live animals from Central Park Zoo.
The Butterball Turkey hotline answers over 100,000 questions regarding everything about turkeys from both men and women every November and early December.
How much turkey is consumed on Thanksgiving throughout the U.S.? Americans cook up 46 million turkeys each Thanksgiving which is roughly 535 million pounds of turkey eaten on Thanksgiving. That is a LOT of turkey!
An estimated 50 million pumpkin pies are eaten on Thanksgiving. But according to The American Pie Council, more Americans prefer apple pie overall — pumpkin comes in second place.
The Presidential pardoning of a turkey began in 1947 by President Truman and has become an official act ever since. Some of the turkeys pardoned have become Grand Masters at parades in Disneyland and Disney World.
The NFL football games on Thanksgiving began in 1934 when the Detroit lions played the Chicago Bears. The Lions have hosted a Thanksgiving Day game ever since and the next longest are the Dallas Cowboys since 1966.
Have a very Happy and safe Thanksgiving and please, in this crazy world we live in today, take a minute to really be thankful for all that we do have.
Info from allparenting.com, factretriever.com
