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98 free Turkey Day trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
50 free Turkey Day trivia questions with answers. Turkey Day trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is Thanksgiving trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
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Q 01Which Patuxet man taught the Plymouth colonists to catch eel and grow corn?
Squanto
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.
Q 02How many days did the 1621 harvest celebration at Plymouth famously last?
Three
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.
Q 03Which 19th-century editor tirelessly campaigned for Thanksgiving to become a national holiday?
Sarah Josepha Hale
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.
Q 04In what year did a US president proclaim a national day of Thanksgiving during the Civil War?
1863
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.
Q 05In which Dutch city did the Pilgrims live before sailing for America?
Leiden
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.
Q 06Which children's Thanksgiving custom faded once the Macy's parade caught on?
Ragamuffin Day
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.
Q 07Which 1796 volume was the first known cookbook written by a citizen of the United States?
American Cookery
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.
Q 08Who was master of the Mayflower on its 1620 voyage to New England?
Christopher Jones
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.
Q 09What does the cornucopia, often seen as a Thanksgiving decoration, traditionally symbolize?
Abundance and prosperity
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.
Q 10On which day is Thanksgiving celebrated in Canada?
The second Monday in October
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.
Q 11What is Germany's traditional harvest festival, often likened to Thanksgiving, called?
Erntedankfest
Germany celebrates Erntedankfest, meaning 'harvest thanksgiving festival,' which is a religious holiday centered around giving thanks for the harvest.
Q 12In which year did Macy's employees stage the store's first Thanksgiving parade?
1924
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.
Q 13Which Native leader fed the struggling Plymouth colonists and joined their 1621 harvest feast?
Massasoit
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.
Q 21Which Thanksgiving side dish is mashed root vegetable under a brown sugar topping?
Sweet Potato Casserole
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.
Q 22Which second ship was meant to sail with the Mayflower but was left behind as unseaworthy?
Speedwell
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.
Q 23The shopping day after Thanksgiving is commonly known by what name?
Black Friday
Q 14In what year did the Pilgrims arrive in Plymouth aboard the Mayflower?
1620
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.
Q 15In which year did Congress fix Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November?
1941
After two years of 'double Thanksgiving', Roosevelt signed the joint resolution on December 26, 1941, effective from 1942.
Q 16What is an adult male turkey commonly called?
A tom
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.
Q 17Some Native Americans gather at Plymouth Rock each Thanksgiving to observe the day under what name?
A National Day of Mourning
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.
Q 18In what city is the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade primarily held?
New York City
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.
Q 19Which Native American tribe joined the first recorded Thanksgiving at Plymouth Colony in 1621?
Wampanoag
The harvest celebration in 1621 at Plymouth was shared between the English colonists and members of the Wampanoag tribe.
Q 20Which NFL team has hosted a game every Thanksgiving since 1934, barring a few WWII years?
Detroit Lions
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.
Black Friday is the informal name for the Friday after Thanksgiving, traditionally marking the start of the Christmas shopping season.
Q 24Which fruit is traditionally made into a sauce or jelly and served with Thanksgiving turkey?
Cranberry
Cranberry sauce, with its tart flavor, is a classic accompaniment to the rich taste of roasted turkey on Thanksgiving.
Q 25In what year did FDR move Thanksgiving earlier to extend the Christmas shopping season?
1939
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.
Q 26Which Roman goddess was often shown holding a cornucopia and a ship's rudder?
Fortuna
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.
Q 27Which U.S. President formalized the tradition of pardoning a turkey annually for Thanksgiving?
George H.W. Bush
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.
Q 28The oldest continually running annual footrace in North America is a holiday race held in which city?
Buffalo
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.
Q 29Which President issued a Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789, the first under the new U.S. Constitution?
George Washington
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.
Q 30From which year is the name 'wishbone' recorded for the forked bone people pull apart?
1860
1860: 'wishbone' is first recorded in American English in 1860; in England the bone had been called the 'merrythought' since the early 1600s.