My first blog discussed the history of our Thanksgiving holiday in the USA, but there is so much more to reveal about this wonderful event. I will share facts that you probably know if you are an American and maybe some fun and interesting and even some surprising information that you may not know. If you are from another country, all of thContactis may be new information to you. I hope you will learn so much about an important holiday in the USA. I know that I learned new things which I always love to do as I was doing my research for this blog. So sit back, read and hopefully enjoy my blog, and begin to think about all of the things that make you happy and thankful. My next blog will reveal my blessings……….. 
HISTORICAL FACTS ABOUT THE PILGRIMS AND INDIANS
1. The pilgrims were the first people to celebrate Thanksgiving in 1620 with the American Indians.
2. The pilgrims crossed the Atlantic Ocean to reach the lands of North America.
3. They sailed on a ship called the “Mayflower.”
4. The average age of a passenger on the ship was 32 years.
5. When the pilgrims reached what is now the USA, they discovered that the Indians wore clothing made of animal skin.
6. Puritans used to love beer.
7. The Wampanoag Indians were the people who taught the pilgrims how to cultivate the land.
8. The first Thanksgiving lasted for three days. Then Governor William Bradford decided to arrange a harvest festival at the beginning of autumn to give thanks and to recognize the help that the Wampanoag Indians had given to them. It is believed that there were games and races and that the feast took place in late autumn.
9. Mashed potatoes, pumpkin pies, popcorn, milk, corn on the cob, and cranberries were not present on the table of this first feast but are very common on modern American tables today.
10. Lobsters, rabbit, chicken, fish, squashes, beans, chestnuts, hickory nuts, onions, leeks, dried fruits, maple syrup and honey, radishes, cabbage, carrots, eggs, and goat cheese are thought to have been a part of the first feast. The turkey was not part of this feast.
11. The pilgrims did not use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers.
12. Plymouth Rock was not where the first settlers called home. They did, in fact, land in Plymouth Rock, but the natives were hostile so they moved south to Cape Cod.
THANKSGIVING FACTS THROUGHOUT HISTORY
1. Benjamin Franklin (who happens to be one of my ancestors) wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States. 
2. New York made Thanksgiving an annual custom in 1817.
3. Sarah Joseph Hale, an American magazine editor, persuaded Abraham Lincoln to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. She is also the author of the popular nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
4. Abraham Lincoln issued a “Thanksgiving Proclamation” on October 3, 1863, and officially set aside the last Thursday of November as the national day for Thanksgiving. However, Congress did not officially declare it to be a national holiday until 1941. 
5. The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition began in the 1920’s. Every year as I prepare our great feast, I enjoy taking time out to watch this celebratory event on my television. The first parade was the brainchild of Macy’s employees, many of whom were European immigrants. They wanted to celebrate the traditions of their homelands. Four hundred employees participated in the first parade. The parade is held in New York City, New York, and is now the world’s largest parade of inflatable figures that tower above the streets of the city.
6. In 1939, President Roosevelt proclaimed that Thanksgiving would take place on November 23, not November 30, as a way to spur economic growth and to extend the Christmas shopping season which begins seriously the day after Thanksgiving. This year Texas and Colorado decided to celebrate Thanksgiving twice due to this.
7. Congress passed a law on December 26, 1941, ensuring that all Americans would celebrate a unified Thanksgiving on the fourth of November every year. “Black Friday” was the term that was first used in the 1960’s to refer to the time of the year when retailers’ profits would go from “red” (a loss) to “black” (a profit). The Christmas shopping season is the biggest shopping time of the year in the USA. One example of this is this amazing statistic. The Nintendo DS sold 653,000 units during the holiday weekend in 2007 to make this the most profitable week in Nintendo History.
8. Since 1947 when Harry Truman was the President, the National Turkey Federation has presented a live turkey and two dressed turkeys to the President. The President does not eat the live turkey. He “pardons” it and allows it to live out the rest of its life on a historical farm. Since 2005, the pardoned turkey has been flown to California to be the honorary Grand Marshall of the Disneyland Thanksgiving Day Parade.
9. In 2001, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative Thanksgiving stamp. Designed by the artist Margaret Cusack in a style resembling folk-art needlework, it depicts a cornucopia overflowing with fruits and vegetables, under the phrase “We Give Thanks.” The cornucopia is traditionally a curved goat’s horn filled to the brim with fruits and grains. This comes from the Greek legend of Amalthea (a goat) who broke off one of her horns and offered it to the Greek god Zeus as a sign of respect. Zeus set the goat’s image in the sky to say thank you which is now the constellation Capricorn. Cornucopia has since become the most common symbol of a harvest festival. 
10. Thanksgiving is considered to be the busiest travel day in the United States each year. For example, in 2009 the American Automobile Association (AAA) estimated that 38.4 million Americans traveled 50 miles or more from home over this holiday weekend.
11. Although Thanksgiving is widely considered to be an American holiday, it is also celebrated on the second Monday in October in Canada, our neighbor to the north of us.
FUN AND INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE TURKEY
1. The average weight of a turkey purchased at Thanksgiving is 15 pounds.
2. The heaviest turkey ever raised was 86 pounds, about the size of a large dog.
3. A 15 pound turkey usually has about 70 per cent white meat and 30 per cent dark meat. 
4. The five most popular ways to serve leftover turkey are as a sandwich, in stew, in chili or soup, in casseroles, and as a turkey burger.
5. Turkey has more protein than chicken or beef.
6. Turkeys will have 3500 feathers at maturity.
7. Male turkeys gobble. Hens do not. They make a clucking noise.
8. Commercially grown turkeys cannot fly.
9. Turkeys have heart attacks. The USA Air Force was doing test runs and breaking the sound barrier. Nearby turkeys dropped dead with heart attacks.
10. A large group of turkeys is called a flock.
11. Turkeys have poor night vision.
12. It takes 75-80 pounds of feed to raise a 30 pound turkey.
13. A 16 week old turkey is called a fryer. A five to seven month old turkey is called a young roaster.
14. In the USA about 280 million turkeys are sold for the Thanksgiving feast.
15. Each year the average American eats somewhere between 16-18 pound of turkey.
16. Californians are the largest consumers of Turkey in the USA.
17. Minnesota is the top turkey-producing state in the USA.
18. The average person consumes around 4500 calories on Thanksgiving.
19. The average retail price per pound of frozen whole turkey in 2010 was $1.38.
20. Nearly 88 percent of Americans say they eat turkey on Thanksgiving.
21. There are four towns and/or cities named after the turkey: Turkey, Texas; Turkey Creek, Arizona; Turkey, North Carolina; and Turkey Creek, Louisiana.
22. At a Thanksgiving Day Dinner for senior citizens in 1969, President Nixon said these words about Franklin’s thought about our national bird….”I think when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, it would have sounded rather funny to say ‘The turkey has landed,’ and today I think you will agree you would not want to eat an eagle. 
23. Along with turkey, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie are very popular foods for the feast. In 2010 2.4 billion pounds of sweet potatoes were produced. The largest pumpkin pie ever baked weighed 2020 pounds and measured just over 12 feet long, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Baked on October 8, 2005 by the New Bremen Giant Pumpkin Growers in Ohio, it included 62 gallons of evaporated milk, 7 pounds of cinnamon, 3.5 pounds of salt, 900 pounds of pumpkin, 155 dozen eggs, 300 pounds of sugar, 2 pounds of pumpkin spice, and 250 pounds of crust. El Paso Diablos Baseball Club, Texas, USA, made a pecan pie weighing 41,586 pounds at Cohen Stadium in El Paso, Texas, on May 22, 1999.
24. Other modern day traditional foods do include cranberry sauce or salad, mashed potatoes and gravy, regular bread or cornbread stuffing, deviled eggs, whipped cream on the pumpkin pies, dinner rolls and butter or margarine, green bean casserole, and whatever other favorites shared by the family.
As you can see, Thanksgiving has a long and fascinating history in which food plays a major part of it. It is a joyous time for families to gather together, give thanks, enjoy a delicious meal, and share family stories. We Americans treasure this holiday so much.
Randi D. Ward
November 21, 2013
