10 Interesting Facts About Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
We all know Thanksgiving as the time of year where you reunite with your distant relatives, eat an extravagant feast with your family, watch the Macy’s parade on the television, and recount the blessings you are thankful for. However, there are some interesting facts about Halloween that you might not know about that might change the way you view this autumn holiday.
Female turkeys don't gobble
Only male turkeys make the distinctive “gobble, gobble” sound that we have come to associate with the holiday. Female turkeys do, however, make other sounds. In fact, they purr and cackle.
The first Thanksgiving was a three-day festival.
The first Thanksgiving was celebrated as a harvest festival in 1621. 50 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians took part in the celebration, and the festival lasted three days. According to many historians, only five women were present at the celebration.
There is no record of turkey being eaten at the first Thanksgiving.
Although turkey was plentiful in the region and a common food source, there is no evidence suggesting that it was present at the first Thanksgiving. Instead, ducks, geese, and swans are believed to have been served during the festival to the English settlers and Native Americans. Venison, oysters, lobster, eel, and fish were served as well, alongside pumpkins and cranberries.
Some U.S. presidents have pardoned turkeys.
President George H.W. Bush was the president to officially pardon a turkey, according to the White House archives. However, a rumor says that Abraham Lincoln was the first to pardon a turkey after his son begged him to do so. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon were among some of the other presidents who have participated in this tradition.
President Calvin Coolidge was the first to pardon a raccoon in relation to Thanksgiving.
In November 1926, President Calvin Coolidge was given a live raccoon meant to be his Thanksgiving dinner. Not being too fond of the idea of eating a raccoon, he decided to keep it as a pet instead of having it for dinner. This was not unusual, considering the fact that Coolidge and his wife were known to be animal lovers. They were often sent pants randomly, including unconventional ones such as a bear and lion cubs.
Benjamin Franklin was a fan of turkeys.
Benjamin Franklin liked them so much that he wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States of America. In a letter to his daughter, Franklin wrote, “For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country… For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird.” He even viewed the bald eagle as being “a bird of bad moral character.” Although the turkey did not become the national bird as Franklin had wished, his letter did inspire a song in the Tony-winning musical 1776, about the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.
The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade included Central Park Zoo animals.
Originally, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was called the “Macy’s Christmas Parade” to kick off the holiday shopping season. The first parade was held in 1924, and it featured animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo instead of the character balloons we know today. Some of the animals included were monkeys, bears, camels, and elephants.
“Jingle Bells” was meant to be a Thanksgiving Day song.
Before being known as a Christamas holiday anthem, “Jingle Bells” was an 1857 song titled “One Horse Open Sleigh.” The composer of the song, James Pierpont, intended it to be a Thanksgiving Day song, but the song became so popular around December 25 that the title was changed to “Jingle Bells” in 1859.
The majority of Americans secretly dislike classic Thanksgiving dishes but eat them anyway.
According to a 2019 Instacard survey conducted by the Harris Poll, a whopping 68 percent of Americans reported that they dislike Thanksgiving dishes like canned cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and even turkey but still eat them in honor of tradition. However, times are changing. Thirty percent of Thanksgiving dinner hosts have served something other than turkey as their main course with pork being the second most popular option.
The turkey bird got its name from the country of Turkey.
During the Ottoman Empire guinea fowl were exported from East Africa via turkey to Europe, and Eurpoeans began calling the birds turkey-cocks or turkey-hens because of the trade route. When Europeans first sailed to North America and discovered birds that had a similar appearance to the guinea fowl, they called them “turkeys.”
Sources
https://images.app.goo.gl/6p8PugcDPn58azt79 (Cover Image)
Comments