98 Fun Facts About Turkey Day

Which Patuxet man taught the Plymouth colonists to catch eel and grow corn?

Squanto (Tisquantum), a Patuxet who learned English after being kidnapped and sold in Spain in 1614, showed the colonists how to plant corn with fish and where to catch eels.

How many days did the 1621 harvest celebration at Plymouth famously last?

Three days: Edward Winslow's December 1621 letter, printed in Mourt's Relation, records that the colonists and about ninety Native men 'entertained and feasted' for three days after the harvest.

Which 19th-century editor tirelessly campaigned for Thanksgiving to become a national holiday?

Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of Godey's Lady's Book, conducted a decades-long letter-writing campaign to presidents and governors, advocating for a national Thanksgiving Day.

In what year did a US president proclaim a national day of Thanksgiving during the Civil War?

1863: on October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November a national day of Thanksgiving and Praise, in the middle of the Civil War.

In which Dutch city did the Pilgrims live before sailing for America?

Leiden: the Pilgrims' congregation settled there in 1609 after a year in Amsterdam, working in its textile, printing and brewing trades for more than a decade before leaving for America.

Which children's Thanksgiving custom faded once the Macy's parade caught on?

Ragamuffin Day: New York children dressed as beggars and went door to door asking 'Anything for Thanksgiving?', a custom that faded in the 1930s as the Macy's parade drew the crowds instead.

Which 1796 volume was the first known cookbook written by a citizen of the United States?

American Cookery, published in Hartford in 1796 by Amelia Simmons, was the first cookbook written by an American and the first to print recipes using native cornmeal.

Who was master of the Mayflower on its 1620 voyage to New England?

Christopher Jones, master and part-owner of the Mayflower, commanded the 1620 crossing and kept the ship at Plymouth through the first winter before sailing home in April 1621.

What does the cornucopia, often seen as a Thanksgiving decoration, traditionally symbolize?

Abundance and prosperity: the cornucopia or 'horn of plenty' comes from Greek myth, where the horn of the goat Amalthea overflowed with food, and it became an attribute of harvest and fortune deities.

On which day is Thanksgiving celebrated in Canada?

Canadian Thanksgiving has been a holiday on the second Monday of October since 1957, a date chosen partly because the harvest season arrives earlier in Canada.

What is Germany's traditional harvest festival, often likened to Thanksgiving, called?

Germany celebrates Erntedankfest, meaning 'harvest thanksgiving festival,' which is a religious holiday centered around giving thanks for the harvest.

In which year did Macy's employees stage the store's first Thanksgiving parade?

1924: Macy's employees staged the first parade on November 27, 1924, marching about six miles from 145th Street to the Herald Square store, with Santa Claus bringing up the rear.

Which Native leader fed the struggling Plymouth colonists and joined their 1621 harvest feast?

Massasoit, the Pokanoket sachem, signed a peace treaty with Plymouth in March 1621 and arrived at the harvest feast with about ninety men, who brought five deer.

In what year did the Pilgrims arrive in Plymouth aboard the Mayflower?

1620: the Mayflower anchored off Cape Cod on November 11, 1620, far north of the Virginia Company territory its patent covered, and the colonists settled at Plymouth that December.

In which year did Congress fix Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November?

After two years of 'double Thanksgiving', Roosevelt signed the joint resolution on December 26, 1941, effective from 1942.

What is an adult male turkey commonly called?

A tom: adult male turkeys are called toms or gobblers and females hens, while a drake is a male duck, a cob a male swan and a gander a male goose.

Some Native Americans gather at Plymouth Rock each Thanksgiving to observe the day under what name?

A National Day of Mourning has been led at Plymouth Rock by United American Indians of New England for decades, in acknowledgment of the Native American genocide.

In what city is the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade primarily held?

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is a famous annual event held in New York City, marking the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season.

Which Native American tribe joined the first recorded Thanksgiving at Plymouth Colony in 1621?

The harvest celebration in 1621 at Plymouth was shared between the English colonists and members of the Wampanoag tribe.

Which NFL team has hosted a game every Thanksgiving since 1934, barring a few WWII years?

The Detroit Lions: owner George A. Richards launched the tradition in 1934, persuading NBC radio to carry his team's game against the Chicago Bears nationwide, and the Lions have played every Thanksgiving since 1945.

Which Thanksgiving side dish is mashed root vegetable under a brown sugar topping?

Sweet potato casserole: mashed sweet potatoes baked under a brown-sugar, butter and pecan or marshmallow topping, a descendant of the older candied sweet potatoes.

Which second ship was meant to sail with the Mayflower but was left behind as unseaworthy?

Speedwell: the leaky Speedwell twice forced both ships back to port, so the Mayflower finally sailed alone from Plymouth, England on September 6 and lost the mild-weather crossing.

The shopping day after Thanksgiving is commonly known by what name?

Black Friday is the informal name for the Friday after Thanksgiving, traditionally marking the start of the Christmas shopping season.

Which fruit is traditionally made into a sauce or jelly and served with Thanksgiving turkey?

Cranberry sauce, with its tart flavor, is a classic accompaniment to the rich taste of roasted turkey on Thanksgiving.

In what year did FDR move Thanksgiving earlier to extend the Christmas shopping season?

1939: Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving from November 30 to November 23, 1939, to add a week of Christmas shopping; about half the states refused and kept the last Thursday.

Which Roman goddess was often shown holding a cornucopia and a ship's rudder?

Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck and fortune, was commonly depicted with a cornucopia in one hand and a ship's rudder or wheel in the other, steering and dispensing fortune.

Which U.S. President formalized the tradition of pardoning a turkey annually for Thanksgiving?

George H.W. Bush: on November 14, 1989, Bush told the National Turkey Federation's bird it had been 'granted a presidential pardon as of right now', beginning the annual White House ceremony.

The oldest continually running annual footrace in North America is a holiday race held in which city?

Buffalo: the YMCA Buffalo Turkey Trot, first run on Thanksgiving 1896, predates the Boston Marathon by a year and bills itself as the oldest continuously run footrace in North America.

Which President issued a Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789, the first under the new U.S. Constitution?

George Washington issued the proclamation on October 3, 1789, naming Thursday, November 26 as a day of public thanksgiving; it was a one-off rather than the start of an annual holiday.

From which year is the name 'wishbone' recorded for the forked bone people pull apart?

1860: 'wishbone' is first recorded in American English in 1860; in England the bone had been called the 'merrythought' since the early 1600s.

Which agreement did the Pilgrims write and sign before going ashore?

The Mayflower Compact, signed by 41 men aboard the ship off Cape Cod on November 11, set up a rudimentary self-government for a colony landing outside the bounds of its Virginia patent.

What type of pie is most commonly associated with Thanksgiving dessert?

Pumpkin pie is a quintessential Thanksgiving dessert, often served with whipped cream or ice cream.

What did the first Macy's parade feature instead of the giant character balloons that came later?

Live zoo animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo walked alongside floats and bands; the giant balloons only arrived three years later, filled with plain air their first year.

Which NFL team took up hosting a Thanksgiving Day game in 1966?

The Dallas Cowboys: general manager Tex Schramm volunteered to host in 1966, with the NFL guaranteeing the gate, and a record Cotton Bowl crowd saw Dallas beat Cleveland 26-14.

To which branch of English Protestant dissent did the Plymouth Pilgrims belong?

Separatists: the Plymouth settlers were English Separatists who broke from the Church of England entirely, unlike the Puritans who later founded Massachusetts Bay hoping to reform it from within.

Roughly how long did the Mayflower's Atlantic crossing take?

About 10 weeks: the Mayflower left Plymouth, England on September 6 and sighted Cape Cod on November 9, a 66-day crossing during which a storm cracked a main beam that was braced with a jackscrew.

What term did some people use to refer to Thanksgiving when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved its date?

Franksgiving: Atlantic City mayor Thomas D. Taggart Jr. coined the blend of 'Franklin' and 'Thanksgiving' to mock the change, and about half the states ignored the new date.

Roughly what share of the Mayflower's passengers died during the first winter at Plymouth?

About half: some 45 passengers died between December 1620 and March 1621 of scurvy, pneumonia and exposure, and by spring only four of the adult women were still alive.

What rich, savoury sauce is served with turkey and mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving?

Gravy, typically made from the pan drippings of the roasted turkey, is a traditional and essential accompaniment to many Thanksgiving dishes.

In which year did the league now called the NFL first stage Thanksgiving games?

1920: in its first season the American Professional Football Association, renamed the NFL in 1922, played Thanksgiving games on November 25, 1920, when the Akron Pros beat the Canton Bulldogs and the Decatur Staleys beat the Chicago Tigers.

Which Thanksgiving side dish often includes cream of mushroom soup and crispy fried onions?

Green bean casserole: Dorcas Reilly created it in the Campbell Soup test kitchen in 1955 as a way to use cream of mushroom soup, and it became a holiday fixture.

Which company built the parade's giant balloons from the 1920s until 1980?

Goodyear: puppeteer Tony Sarg designed the first balloons as upside-down marionettes, and Goodyear of Akron, Ohio built them from the late 1920s until Macy's opened its own studio after the 1980 parade.

What is a group of turkeys traditionally called?

A rafter: a group of turkeys is traditionally called a rafter (or a gang), while a murder is crows, a parliament is owls and a gaggle is geese on the ground.

What is the fleshy flap on a male turkey's bill called, which swells when he is excited?

A snood: the snood is the fleshy growth above the bill that lengthens and reddens during display as blood rushes to the head, while the wattle hangs under the chin.

Long before it meant shopping, the same Friday nickname described an 1869 panic in which market?

Gold: on Black Friday, September 24, 1869, the gold price collapsed when the Treasury sold $4 million in gold to break a corner engineered by two speculators working with Grant's brother-in-law Abel Corbin.

Which prize did broadcaster John Madden begin handing out in 1989 to the most valuable player of the NFL's Thanksgiving game?

The Turkey Leg Award was presented on air straight after the game, usually to a player still in uniform.

Which Founding Father called the turkey more 'respectable' than the bald eagle in 1784?

Benjamin Franklin wrote it in a private letter to his daughter Sarah Bache, not as a proposal for the national bird.

What cargo had the Mayflower mostly carried before she took the Pilgrims across the Atlantic?

Wine: before the 1620 voyage the Mayflower was a merchant ship in the wine trade, hauling casks from Bordeaux and La Rochelle to London.

How many passengers did the Mayflower carry across the Atlantic in 1620?

102 passengers sailed, plus a crew of about 30, on a ship roughly 100 feet long; one passenger died at sea and one baby, Oceanus Hopkins, was born during the crossing.

In a turducken, which bird is tucked inside the duck?

The whole assembly is deboned, so the finished roast carves in clean slices through all three birds.

Which cartoon character was the first inflatable balloon in the Macy's parade, in 1927?

The first Felix was filled with plain air and propped up on sticks; Mickey Mouse did not arrive until 1934.

In 1928 Macy's switched from air to which gas so its parade balloons would float?

Helium lifted the balloons from 1928, and the same gas shortage that grounded wartime blimps cancelled the parade from 1942 to 1944.

Which 1947 film opens with footage of the Macy's parade and made it famous nationwide?

Miracle on 34th Street: its opening was filmed at the 1946 parade, the second after the wartime suspension, with Edmund Gwenn riding as Santa on the actual Macy's float.

High winds in 1997 slammed which Macy's balloon into a lamppost, injuring a spectator?

The Cat in the Hat: the balloon struck a lamppost on Central Park West and the falling debris put spectator Kathleen Caronna in a coma; Barney was punctured and the Pink Panther knocked down in the same gusts.

Which actress co-hosted NBC's Macy's parade coverage with Lorne Greene from 1963 to 1972?

Betty White co-hosted NBC's parade coverage with Lorne Greene, then starring in Bonanza, for ten years from 1963 to 1972, after an earlier run hosting the Tournament of Roses Parade.

Which city holds the oldest continuously running Thanksgiving parade in the United States?

Philadelphia: the city's department-store parade began in 1920, before either the Macy's or Detroit parades, and passed to new sponsors after the original store closed in 1986.

Which department store sponsored the nation's oldest Thanksgiving parade in 1920?

Gimbels: Ellis Gimbel sent about 50 costumed employees down Market Street so that Santa could arrive and climb a ladder to the store's eighth-floor toy department.

Detroit's Thanksgiving parade was started by which department store company?

J. L. Hudson: the store's display director Charles Wendel brought the idea back from Toronto's Eaton's Santa Claus Parade, and Hudson's sponsored the Detroit parade until 1979.

Which 2000 mockumentary inspired NBC to air a dog competition after the parade?

Best in Show: after Christopher Guest's mockumentary became a hit, NBC's Jon Miller launched the National Dog Show in 2002 to replace It's a Wonderful Life in the post-parade slot, which had been losing ratings.

Under which president did the official yearly White House turkey presentation begin?

Harry S. Truman received the first official bird from the National Turkey Federation in December 1947, after the poultry industry's backlash against his administration's 'Poultryless Thursdays' grain-saving campaign.

Who was the first president reported to spare the turkey presented to him, in 1963?

John F. Kennedy: on November 19, 1963, three days before his assassination, he looked at the 55-pound bird wearing a 'Good Eating, Mr. President' sign and said 'We'll just let this one grow'.

From 2005 to 2009, pardoned presidential turkeys retired to which kind of attraction?

Disney theme parks: from 2005 to 2008 the pardoned birds flew first class to Disneyland, and in 2009 to Walt Disney World, serving as honorary grand marshals of the park's Thanksgiving Day parade.

Which historic estate kept pardoned turkeys 2010–12, then quit over historical accuracy?

Mount Vernon: the estate hosted the pardoned birds from 2010 to 2012 and then declined, since George Washington never raised turkeys and the birds clashed with its historical-accuracy rules.

In 2013, which turkey beat its stablemate Caramel in a White House online vote?

Popcorn won the 2013 White House vote over Caramel, the pair having come from a Minnesota farm; both retired to Morven Park in Leesburg, Virginia, where Popcorn died the following summer.

To which commercial breed do the National Turkey Federation's presidential turkeys belong?

Broad Breasted White: the presidential birds are commercial Broad Breasted Whites, picked from the presenting farm's flock for size and temperament; Bourbon Red and Narragansett are heritage breeds.

The bird's English name came from confusion with which African bird imported via Turkey?

Guineafowl: Tudor England knew the guineafowl as the 'turkey cock' because Ottoman merchants shipped it from Africa, and colonists transferred the name to the similar-looking American bird; Meleagris is Greek for guineafowl.

The French name for the turkey originally meant 'chicken of' which country?

India: French 'dinde' shortens 'poule d'Inde', 'chicken of India', because the New World was lumped in with the Indies; Dutch 'kalkoen' and Swedish 'kalkon' instead name the port of Calicut.

Which naturalist introduced the turkey genus Meleagris in 1758?

Carl Linnaeus named Meleagris in the tenth edition of Systema Naturae (1758), the starting point of zoological nomenclature; the wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, is the type species.

The ocellated turkey, the wild turkey's only living relative, is native to which region?

The Yucatán Peninsula: Meleagris ocellata is confined to about 130,000 square kilometres of the Yucatán and neighbouring Guatemala and Belize, and has been rated Near Threatened.

How much did Tyson, the heaviest turkey on record when weighed in 1989, weigh?

86 lb: a stag named Tyson, bred by Philip Cook of Peterborough, England, weighed 39.09 kg (86 lb) at the December 1989 heaviest-turkey competition in London, the Guinness record.

Florida's wild turkey subspecies is named after a famous leader of which Native people?

Seminole: Florida's subspecies is the Osceola turkey, named in 1890 for Osceola, the Seminole war leader; it is smaller and darker than the eastern wild turkey.

From 2007 a power plant in Benson, Minnesota burned what unusual fuel?

Turkey litter: the Fibrominn plant in Benson burned about 500,000 tons of turkey droppings and bedding a year to make 55 megawatts, until Xcel Energy bought it and shut it down as uneconomic.

Which meat processor employed Leo Peters when he bought the Butterball trademark in 1951?

Swift and Co.: Leo Peters, a Swift executive, bought the Butterball name from Ada Walker of Wyoming, Ohio in 1951, and Swift licensed it for the fast-frozen turkeys it sold from 1954.

What is the single most common question asked on Butterball's Turkey Talk-Line?

How long a bird takes to defrost: thawing questions have topped the Talk-Line since it opened in November 1981 with six home economists and 11,000 calls; the line first hired men in 2013.

Where did Dorcas Reilly donate her original 1955 casserole recipe card in 2002?

The National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio received the original recipe card in 2002; Reilly had created the dish at Campbell's in Camden, New Jersey, for an Associated Press feature on pantry-staple meals.

Stove Top stuffing was introduced in 1972 by which food company?

General Foods launched Stove Top in 1972, with home economist Ruth Siems named as inventor on the 1975 patent; the brand later passed to Kraft, which has reported about 60 million boxes sold each Thanksgiving.

Marcus Urann, who first sold jellied berry sauce in 1912, founded which cooperative?

Ocean Spray: Urann, a Massachusetts bog owner and lawyer, formed the Ocean Spray cooperative in 1930 with two other growers, and its jellied sauce went national in 1941.

Libby's canned pumpkin is made solely from which pumpkin variety?

Dickinson: Libby's grows its own strain of the Dickinson pumpkin around Morton, Illinois; it is a tan, oblong Cucurbita moschata closer to a butternut squash than to a jack-o'-lantern.

The earliest known pecan pie recipe appeared in 1886 in which magazine?

Harper's Bazaar printed the earliest known pecan pie recipe in 1886; before corn syrup, fillings used dark sugar syrup or molasses, and the 1929 Congressional Club cookbook version used only eggs, milk, sugar and pecans.

Per Gerry Thomas, Swanson's 1953 TV dinner was invented to use a huge surplus of what?

Frozen turkeys: Thomas said Swanson was stuck with some 260 tons of unsold turkey riding in refrigerated railcars after Thanksgiving 1953, though the Swanson family and the Los Angeles Times credit brothers Gilbert and Clarke Swanson instead.

Turkey's tryptophan level, blamed for post-dinner naps, is about the same as that of what?

Other meats: turkey holds roughly 250-300 mg of tryptophan per 100 g, about the same as chicken or beef; the drowsiness is more likely the mountain of carbohydrates and alcohol served alongside.

In Friends' 'The One Where Ross Got High', whose Thanksgiving trifle has a layer of beef?

Rachel: the cookbook's pages are stuck together, so she combines an English trifle with shepherd's pie, layering custard and jam with sautéed beef, peas and onions.

'A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving' premiered in 1973 on which network?

CBS premiered it on Tuesday, November 20, 1973, two days before the holiday; the network had carried every Peanuts special since A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965.

Which character invites herself to Charlie Brown's house in the 1973 special?

Peppermint Patty phones to invite herself, then Marcie and Franklin, because her father is away; Charlie Brown and Snoopy serve buttered toast, pretzel sticks and jelly beans, and she complains loudly.

In 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles', a blizzard diverts Neal and Del's flight to where?

Wichita: the diverted flight lands in Wichita, where the pair share a motel double bed and accidentally swap credit cards, setting up the rest of the trip to Chicago.

In 'Alice's Restaurant Massacree', what offense gets Arlo Guthrie arrested on the holiday?

Littering: Arlo and a friend dump Alice's garbage down a hillside on Thanksgiving 1965 because the Stockbridge dump is closed, and the littering conviction later lands him on the draft board's Group W bench.

In WKRP's 'Turkeys Away', how does Arthur Carlson deliver his live turkey giveaway?

Dropped from a helicopter: Carlson has live turkeys thrown from a helicopter over a shopping-centre car park, Les Nessman's report echoes the Hindenburg broadcast, and the 1978 episode ends with 'I thought turkeys could fly'.

Which actress directed the 1995 Thanksgiving family drama 'Home for the Holidays'?

Jodie Foster directed it as her second feature after Little Man Tate; Holly Hunter stars as Claudia, who flies to her parents' Baltimore home after losing her job and kissing her ex-boss.

In 'Addams Family Values', Wednesday is cast as whom in the camp's Thanksgiving play?

Pocahontas: after a stint in the Harmony Hut watching saccharine family films, Wednesday is cast as Pocahontas opposite Amanda's Sarah Miller, then hijacks the play and burns the camp.

Norman Rockwell's 'Freedom from Want' first appeared in 1943 in which magazine?

The Saturday Evening Post ran the painting on March 6, 1943 as the third of the Four Freedoms series; the models were neighbours from Arlington, Vermont, photographed separately, and Rockwell's cook serves the bird.

In Lydia Maria Child's original 1844 poem, whose house are the travelers heading to?

Grandfather's: the 1844 poem, printed in Flowers for Children as 'The New-England Boy's Song about Thanksgiving Day', runs 'to grandfather's house we go'; later singers swapped in grandmother and turned 'wood' into 'woods'.

Which early president refused to proclaim national thanksgiving days on church-state grounds?

Thomas Jefferson declined to proclaim thanksgiving days, writing in 1808 that religious exercises were not the federal government's business; James Madison revived the practice in 1814 at the close of the War of 1812.

Canada's first thanksgiving is credited to which explorer's safe landing in 1578?

Martin Frobisher held a service of thanks in 1578 after his fleet, scattered by ice and storms on a failed hunt for the Northwest Passage, regrouped at Frobisher Bay; Canada made the holiday official in 1879.

What happened to Plymouth Rock when townspeople tried to haul it to Town Square in 1774?

It broke in half: the rock split as it was levered onto a cart; the upper half sat in Town Square, then by Pilgrim Hall, until the halves were rejoined on the waterfront in 1880.

Which African nation has held Thanksgiving on the first Thursday of November since 1883?

Liberia: the custom came with the country's founders, free and formerly enslaved Black Americans settled by the American Colonization Society from 1822, and the holiday falls on the first Thursday of November.

Which two colleges began an annual Thanksgiving Day football game in 1876?

Yale and Princeton met at Hoboken, New Jersey on Thanksgiving 1876, the start of an annual holiday game that by the 1890s drew some 40,000 to New York's Manhattan Field.

Which 94-year-old church elder first declared Plymouth Rock the Pilgrims' landing spot?

Thomas Faunce, a 94-year-old church elder, identified the rock in 1741 when a wharf was about to bury it; his father had arrived on the Anne in 1623, and no Pilgrim writing mentions a rock.

Bradford's lost 'Of Plymouth Plantation' manuscript resurfaced in which bishop's library?

Fulham Palace, the Bishop of London's residence, held the manuscript from at least 1855; presumed carried off during the British occupation of Boston, it was returned to Massachusetts in 1897.