Thanksgiving Day is a Holiday rooted in rich history. Here are some very fun and interesting Thanksgiving facts to share during Thanksgiving dinner.
*Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States.
*Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the second Monday in October in Canada.
*The pilgrims arrived in North America in December 1620.
*The Pilgrims sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to reach North America.
*The pilgrims sailed on the ship, which was known by the name of 'Mayflower'.
*The Wampanoag Indians were the people who taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate the land.
*The drink that the Puritans brought with them in the Mayflower was beer.
*By the fall of 1621 only half of the pilgrims, who had sailed on the Mayflower, survived. The survivors, thankful to be alive, decided to give a thanksgiving feast.
They celebrated the first Thanksgiving Day at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
*The Pilgrim leader, Governor William Bradford organized the Thanksgiving feast and invited the neighboring Wampanoag Indians also to the feast.
*The first Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days.
* At the first harvest celebration with the pilgrims and Native Americans, "fowl" was eaten. While this might have been turkey, it's more likely to have been geese and ducks.
* A mature turkey has 3,500 feathers. Turkey feather were used by Native Americans to stabilize arrows.
* Turkeys have lived in North America for 10 million years
*There was no milk, cheese, bread, butter or pumpkin pie at the original Thanksgiving Day feast.
*The cranberry got its name because the pale pink blossoms on the plant resembled a crane's head and neck. The name craneberry stuck, eventually becoming cranberry.
*Ben Franklin liked the Turkey so much he wanted it to be the official bird of the
*A male turkey is called a (tom). The female is called a (hen). The babies are called poults.
*Only male (tom) turkeys gobble. Females (hen) make a clicking noise. The famous gobble is actually a seasonal mating call.
* A tom's gobble can be heard a mile away.
*A hen lays around 115 eggs a month which take about 28 days to hatch.
*Turkeys are known to spend the night in trees!
*Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. Wild turkeys however, can run 20 miles per hour and fly up to 55 miles per hour.
*Turkeys can drown if they look up when it's raining!
*A group of turkeys is called a flock.
*Currently over 670 million turkeys are eaten at Thanksgiving.
*A turkey under 16 weeks of age is called a fryer. A five to seven month old turkey is called a roaster.
*The largest turkey on record was 86 pounds.
*The average person consumes 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day.
Shana is a food & drinks focused content author, helping you learn more about fun & interesting Thanksgiving facts. For delicious thanksgiving recipes, traditional food offers a wide variety of recipes you can choose from.
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