As I publish this article, we are only a few weeks away from one of the most anticipated annual national holidays of this end of the year.
Did you guess what holiday I’m talking about?
Thanksgiving, of course!
This year, Thanksgiving Day 2019 falls on the fourth Thursday of November.
This means that we only have 9 weeks left before the event.
I can already feel your excitement just thinking of all those Thanksgiving appetizers that you will be able to enjoy with your family.
I am wrong? Na na na …
But before thinking about the meal and all the good times you are going to spend with your loved ones, there are some important facts you may want to know about Thanksgiving.
If so, keep reading.
Thanksgiving Day has been a central part of American life for many years and it has a long and somewhat complex history in this country. Given the original purpose of giving thanks for the fall harvest, the tradition has evolved in different ways throughout the world.
People have varying opinions about the veracity of the anecdotes that have been shared regarding the holiday in the United States, but we can all agree on a few things about Turkey Day.
People love to eat the big meal, it’s a great reason to get the family together and it is a great time of year to kick off your shopping errands before Christmas! It can also be a stressful day full of cooking disasters and a hundred relatives descending upon your house all at once.
Of course, there is so much about the holiday that we should take the time to appreciate so let’s dig into how Thanksgiving became the season that it is today.
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So, Why Do We Celebrate Thanksgiving?
Here are 17 Facts You Need to Know About Thanksgiving.
1. The first Thanksgiving lasted three days!
That’s right, you thought that you were stressed out about preparing the one meal for all of the relatives?
Well, try preparing enough food for three days of feasting! The first Thanksgiving meal of record was in November of 1621 when the Pilgrims invited the Wampanoag tribe to join them to enjoy the fruits of the harvest.
The tribe did not see the colonists as a threat at that time, primarily because they had arrived with women and children. In their culture, women and children are not brought to a place of war so they felt comfortable to spend time with the Pilgrims and enjoy the meal. Everyone enjoyed themselves so much that both sides decided to keep the party going for a couple of extra days.
2. Turkey was not always on the menu
Historians have not been able to find any evidence that the colonists and Wampanoag tribe actually ate any turkey during that first meal.
Of course, they ate well but the turkey wasn’t specifically a part of the festivities. There is a record of them eating duck and goose on that day, of course, all of the corn that they harvested and even some records of them eating lobster!
The Native Americans who were invited to the meal wanted to contribute, so they brought venison to share with the Pilgrims as well.
3. It took 200 years to get on the calendar
There was a lot of resistance to adding Thanksgiving to the calendar as a national holiday because there was a lot of prayer and faith-based principles that were associated with it at the time.
Since the Founding Fathers felt strongly about the separation of church and state, leaders like Thomas Jefferson were not convinced that making it a national holiday would be wise. After years of public campaigning from prominent figures, Abraham Lincoln finally made it the day that we all celebrate today.
4. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has evolved with the holiday
The traditional Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade started in the early 1920’s and used a lot of employees from the main Macy’s store in New York City. The first parades didn’t have floats or balloons. Some of the first parades actually featured animals from Central Park Zoo instead!
Early floats were pulled by a horse and there were a lot of singers and bands that were incorporated into the event. Some years used puppets and the parades always featured celebrities and Santa Claus in preparation for the upcoming Christmas season. Since the inception of the floats, they have become staples in the parade and Snoopy has actually made the highest number of appearances on that day.
5. Frozen dinners were borne out of a Thanksgiving Day mistake
When a Swanson employee ordered too much turkey, they weren’t sure of what to do with the excess. They decided to pack the extra turkey into small packages with some peas and mashed potatoes and other items to make each package a full meal.
The pre-packaged meals were a huge hit so the infamous TV dinner was born! Swanson actually didn’t expect the sales to go well but the rumor is that they sold over 1,000 times the projected amount that they thought would sell.
6. It wasn’t always on the fourth Thursday
The national holiday was set for the fourth Thursday of every year, but during the Great Depression, there was some thought from the Roosevelt administration that moving the holiday up might stir some spending. That year, and only that year, the president decided to move the holiday to the third Thursday.
7. It’s the day turkeys get to show off their stuff
Turkey is actually not a commonly celebrated meat for most of the year. The majority of people only eat deli turkey use it as a healthy alternative to beef or pork in meatballs or burgers. For Thanksgiving, there are 46 million turkeys cooked for the holiday meal in the United States and another 22 million families go back for more on Christmas!
8. It’s a day that calls for a post-Thanksgiving workout plan
You look forward to the day all year, the day when you can eat and eat all of the delicious dishes that the holiday has to offer. Keep in mind that the average person eats over 200 grams of fat on Thanksgiving Day! Between the meat, pies, potatoes and more it can be a single day that sets you back a week in your diet plan.
The American Council on Exercise provides some tips on how to cut the calories and keep yourself active while still being able to enjoy the special day.
9. Most people strangely prefer the leftovers
The big Thanksgiving meal fills everyone up, but there still seems to always be an endless supply of leftovers. So much so that people have come up with some pretty creative recipes to repurpose the food towards a different yummy meal!
Funny enough, eight in ten people in America actually look forward to their Thanksgiving leftovers more than they look forward to the meal itself!
10. Black Friday is a busy day for more than shoppers
The day after Turkey Day is a great one to jumpstart your Christmas shopping, but it’s a busy day for more than consumerism. Given that so many people have relatives visiting and staying under one roof, a lot of plumbing systems get overworked during this particular holiday season.
Between the bathroom use, the garbage disposal use and faucets running, it is a busy day for plumbers too!
Black Friday is actually the busiest day of the year for the plumbing industry in the United States.
11. Black Friday starts on Thursday for many people
Most Americans do not believe that stores should be open on Thanksgiving Day short of the morning hours of grocery stores for the emergency can of cranberries. People think that employees should be able to stay home with their families to enjoy the holiday like everyone else.
In spite of that, more than 30 million people actually start their shopping on Thanksgiving instead of on Black Friday according to the National Retail Federation.
12. When Thanksgiving stress hits, there’s someone you can call!
For the last 35 years, there has been a hotline in operation to support those Thanksgiving cooking teams in kitchens across America.
The Butter Ball Turkey Talk Line has been a huge help for people who aren’t sure that they’re cooking their bird the right way.
On average, the line helps almost 100,000 cooks in crisis to make sure that their butter ball turns out golden, delicious and juicy for the big meal!
13. The eagle had a delicious challenger for the national bird
Interestingly, Benjamin Franklin was not a big fan of American naming the eagle as the national bird. Apparently, the turkey seemed like a more respectable bird to him and he wrote in a letter to his daughter that he had preferred the turkey to represent the nation.
Although he never made an official pitch to include the turkey, his issue was more that the eagle didn’t live honestly because of its methods of stealing its food.
He felt that it implied the bald eagle was of “bad moral character” so the comparison to the turkey was only because the turkey was more honest in his opinion.
14. There is a rich history with Thanksgiving corn, too
Of course, we all know the story of the first meal being borne out of a great harvest, particularly the amount of corn grown. That tradition remained for a long time and although many people don’t think of corn as an important factor in the big meal, it has become a strong symbol for the holiday. There were Native American tribes who viewed corn as being extremely important and some even saw blue and white corn as being sacred!
15. Other countries have their own Thanksgiving holidays
Did you know? Although America has a very specific history tied to Thanksgiving, the holiday is rooted in principles that are practiced throughout the world. It is really viewed in parts of the world as a day to give thanks for the fall harvest and that can be applied anywhere.
As a result, there are versions of Thanksgiving that are celebrated in other countries as well. Canadian and Chinese Thanksgivings have actually been holidays for longer than American Thanksgiving. Different versions of the holiday are celebrated in other countries as well, and the differences in traditions are worth learning about!
16. The Turkey Bowl trend started in 1920
Football has become a huge part of the American Thanksgiving tradition, and the first game was played on the holiday in 1920.
The Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys quickly became the most common teams to play on the holiday each year, but in recent decades more teams have been added to the rotation.
During World War II, the professional games were paused and there was no NFL event for the holiday but the tradition has been consistent outside of that. Many families in America have developed their own football tournaments to play at home every year as a result!
17. The turkey isn’t actually what’s making you sleepy
There is a common misconception about why people feel so sleepy after the big Thanksgiving meal. Many believe that tryptophan is the reason for this phenomena, but if that were the case then eating a turkey sandwich or turkey meatballs would make you sleepy any other day of the year.
Turkey doesn’t actually have much more tryptophan than any other poultry. Instead, it is the amount of food that we eat on Thanksgiving because being that full causes our bodies to shut down. The digestive process wears the body out because of the intense overeating that we do on the holiday and that process exhausts your body enough to go into hibernation mode!
Conclusion:
Hopefully, this list of facts has taught you a little bit about how the Thanksgiving holiday has evolved from that first meal between Pilgrims and Native Americans to the football-filled, shopping frenzy feasting season that we all enjoy today.
Regardless of how the holiday has evolved and blossomed over the years, the purpose of the day is to give thanks for what we have. Since the dynamics of harvest and food availability have changed from seasonal to year-round, we need to look to other things to be grateful for.
Spend time with the people who matter most to you, and remember to be thankful for them even in the midst of the holiday craziness. Make your own traditions that your family and friends can look forward to each year and be thankful that you are able to put a beautiful meal and fun party together!
Most importantly, remember that many spend the holiday alone or with very little to put their meals together.
Do something good for members of your community and give those less fortunate than yourself something beautiful to be grateful for this Thanksgiving Day!
Do you have other facts about Thanksgiving of your own that you would like to share with us?
I’m pretty sure that my readers would love to have your feedback. Please don’t hesitate to leave your comment below.
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