Thanksgiving - 10 Things

1.Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the fourth Thursday of November in the USA and on the second Monday of October in Canada

2.The first Thanksgiving was in 1621 when the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared a Harvest Festival feast.

 3.U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving Day a national holiday in 1863.

4. Canada's Thanksgiving established in 1879 was based on the USA's Thanksgiving but in 1957 it was decided to have the annual holiday in October due to Canada's colder weather conditions.

5.That first feast  included many different meats:
"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.”   A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth by Edward Winslow

6. There were no forks at the first Thanksgiving. The pilgrims didn’t use forks, they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers.

7.That first Thanksgiving feast lasted 3 days.

8.Today's classic Thanksgiving menu is turkey, cranberries, root vegetables including sweet potato followed by pumpkin pie.

9.Television now plays an important part in Thanksgiving celebrations with many families watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and football (American) games on TV.

10.The "Turkey Pardon" is a Thanksgiving Tradition where the President of the USA officially pardons the National Thanksgiving Turkey who is then allowed to live out it's days on a farm rather than going to meat.

 Happy Thanksgiving.