HISTORY AND ORGIN of THANKSGIVING

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

A compilation of information about:

The History & Traditions of Thanksgivings

Myths about Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day Prayers (nondenominational)

Thanksgiving Poems

Thanksgiving Weekend Weather Report

Turkey Facts

Trivia Quizzes and Answers, too

HISTORY AND ORGIN of THANKSGIVING

The Thanksgiving Story

The first observance of Thanksgiving in America was entirely religious in nature and involved no form of feasting. On December 4, 1619, a group of 38 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Plantation on the James River...a location now known as Charles City, Virginia. The charter of the group required that the day of arrival be observed as a Day of Thanksgiving to Go. The celebration of Thanksgiving in America was probably derived from the harvest-home ceremonies originally held in England.

The Pilgrims who sailed to this country aboard the Mayflower were originally members of the English Separatist Church (a Puritan sect). They had earlier fled their home in England and sailed to Holland (The Netherlands) to escape religious persecution. There, they enjoyed more religious tolerance, but they eventually became disenchanted with the Dutch way of life, thinking it ungodly. Seeking a better life, the Separatists negotiated with a London stock company to finance a pilgrimage to America. Most of those making the trip aboard the Mayflower were non-Separatists, but were hired to protect the company's interests. Only about one-third of the original colonists were Separatists.

Popularly known as the Pilgrims, they had set sail from Plymouth, England on a ship called the Mayflower on September 6, 1620. They were fortune hunters, bound for the resourceful 'New World'. The Mayflower was a small ship crowded with men, women and children, besides the sailors on board. Aboard were passengers composed of the 'separatists', who called themselves the "Saints", and others, whom the separatists called the "Strangers".

After land was sighted in November following 66 days of a lethal voyage, a meeting was held and an agreement of truce was worked out between the Saints and Strangers. It was called the Mayflower Compact. The agreement guaranteed equality among the members of the two groups. They merged together to be recognized as the "Pilgrims." They elected John Carver as their first governor.

The Pilgrims set ground at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620. Contrary to popular belief, however, Plymouth Rock was not the site of the original colony. When the Pilgrims landed there on December 11, 1620 in search of fresh provisions, they were greeted with hostility by the natives in the immediate vicinity and put back out to sea almost at once. A little further south, they came across Cape Cod, a much more favorable anchorage than Plymouth had proved to be and a native population which was more cordial in nature. Weary from their voyage and in no mood to hunt down the site mandated by their charter (which was considerably further down the coast and somewhere within the limits of the original grant of the Virginia Company of Plymouth), the Pilgrims decided to establish their colony within this friendly territory.

That initial harsh Massachusetts winter killed approximately one-half of the original 102 colonists. In the following Spring of 1621, the Indians, led by two braves named Samoset (of the Wampanoag Tribe) and Squanto (of the Patuxtet Tribe), taught the survivors how to plant corn (called "maize" by the natives) and how to catch alewives (a variety of the herring family) in order that the fish might be used as a fertilizer to growing pumpkins, beans and other crops. Samsoset and Squanto also instructed the Pilgrims in the arts of hunting and angling. By that Summer, despite poor crops of peas, wheat and barley, a good corn yield was expected and the pumpkin crop was bountiful. In early Autumn, to recognize the help afforded the colonists by the Indians and to give thanks for having survived, Governor William Bradford arranged for a harvest festival. Four men were sent "fowling" after ducks and geese. Turkey may or may not have been a part of the forthcoming meal since the term "turkey" was used by the Pilgrims to mean any type of wild fowl.

The festival lasted three days. Massasoit, local sachem or chief of the Wampanoag, together with 90 Indians from the various Eastern Woodlands Tribes, participated in the ceremony. There can be little doubt that the majority of the feast was most likely furnished by the indigenous population. It is certain that they provided venison. The remainder of the meal, eaten outdoors around large tables, also probably included fish, berries, boiled pumpkin, watercress, leeks, lobster, dried fruit, clams, wild plums and cornbread. The celebration of this first New England Thanksgiving is believed to have taken place sometime between September 21 and November 9.

The event, however, was a one-time celebration. It was not repeated the following year, nor was it intended to be an annual festival. It was not until 55 years later than another Thanksgiving Day was officially proclaimed, when the Governing Council of Charlestown, Massachusetts convened on June 20, 1676 to weigh how to best express thanks for the good fortune that had secured the establishment of their community. By unanimous vote, Edward Rawson (the Clerk of the Council) was instructed to announce June 29 as a Day of Thanksgiving. It is notable that this thanksgiving celebration probably did not include the Indians, as the celebration was meant partly to be in recognition of the colonists' recent victory over the "heathen natives," Yet again, this proved to be only a one-time event.

October of 1777 marked the first time that all 13 colonies joined in a thanksgiving celebration. It also commemorated the patriotic victory over the British at Saratoga. But it was a one-time affair.

George Washington proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789, although some were opposed to it. There was discord among the colonies, many feeling the hardships of a few Pilgrims did not warrant a national holiday. And later, President Thomas Jefferson scoffed at the idea of having a day of thanksgiving.

It was Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor, whose efforts eventually led to what we recognize as Thanksgiving. Hale wrote many editorials championing her cause in her Boston Ladies' Magazine, and later, in Godey's Lady's Book. Finally, after a 40-year campaign of writing editorials and letters to governors and presidents, Hale's obsession became a reality when, in 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was proclaimed by every president after Lincoln. The date was changed a couple of times, most recently by Franklin Roosevelt, who set it up one week to the next-to-last Thursday in order to create a longer Christmas shopping season. Public uproar against this decision caused the president to move Thanksgiving back to its original date two years later. And in 1941, Thanksgiving was finally sanctioned by Congress as a legal holiday, as the fourth Thursday in November.

Ever wonder what the pilgrims and their Native American guests really ate at the first feast? The truth may surprise you. Contrary to popular belief, they didn't sit down to a meal featuring turkey, corn, cranberries, and pumpkin pie (in fact, they didn't even have forks!). It is unlikely that the first feast included pies. The supply of flour had been long diminished, so there was no bread or pastries of any kind. However, they did eat boiled pumpkin, and they produced a type of fried bread from their corn crop. There was also no milk, cider, potatoes, or butter. There were no domestic cattle for dairy products, and the newly-discovered potato was still considered by many Europeans to be poisonous. Nor did the pilgrims dress exclusively in black and white and show up wearing shoes and hats adorned with buckles. So what did they eat and wear?

SEAFOOD: Cod, Eel, Clams, Lobster

WILD FOWL: Wild Turkey, Goose, Duck, Crane, Swan, Partridge, Eagles

MEAT: Venison, Seal

GRAIN: Wheat Flour, Indian Corn

VEGETABLES: Pumpkin, Peas, Beans, Onions, Lettuce, Radishes, Carrots

FRUIT: Plums, Grapes

NUTS: Walnuts, Chestnuts, Acorns

HERBS and SEASONINGS: Olive Oil, Liverwort, Leeks, Dried Currants, Parsnips

Surprisingly, the following foods, all considered staples of the modern Thanksgiving meal, didn't appear on the pilgrim’s first feast table:

HAM: There is no evidence that the colonists had butchered a pig by this time, though they had brought pigs with them from England. SWEET POTATOES/POTATOES: These were not common. CORN ON THE COB: Corn was kept dried out at this time of year. CRANBERRY SAUCE: The colonists had cranberries but no sugar at this time. PUMPKIN PIE: It's not a recipe that exists at this point, though the pilgrims had recipes for stewed pumpkin. CHICKEN/EGGS: We know that the colonists brought hens with them from England, but it's unknown how many they had left at this point or whether the hens were still laying. MILK: No cows had been aboard the Mayflower, though it's possible that the colonists used goat milk to make cheese.

Source: Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation

The pilgrims didn't use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. They wiped their hands on large cloth napkins which they also used to pick up hot morsels of food.
Salt would have been on the table at the harvest feast, and people would have sprinkled it on their food. Pepper, however, was something that they used for cooking but wasn't available on the table.
In the seventeenth century, a person's social standing determined what he or she ate. The best food was placed next to the most important people. People didn't tend to sample everything that was on the table (as we do today), they just ate what was closest to them.
Serving in the seventeenth century was very different from serving today. People weren't served their meals individually. Foods were served onto the table and then people took the food from the table and ate it. All the servers had to do was move the food from the place where it was cooked onto the table.
Pilgrims didn't eat in courses as we do today. All of the different types of foods were placed on the table at the same time and people ate in any order they chose. Sometimes there were two courses, but each of them would contain both meat dishes, puddings, and sweets.

Our modern Thanksgiving repast is centered around the turkey, but that certainly wasn't the case at the pilgrim’s feasts. Their meals included many different meats. Vegetable dishes, one of the main components of our modern celebration, didn't really play a large part in the feast mentality of the seventeenth century. Depending on the time of year, many vegetables weren't available to the colonists.
The pilgrims probably didn't have pies or anything sweet at the harvest feast. They had brought some sugar with them on the Mayflower but by the time of the feast, the supply had dwindled. Also, they didn't have an oven so pies and cakes and breads were not possible at all.
The food that was eaten at the harvest feast would have seemed fatty by today’s standards, but it was probably healthier for the pilgrims than it would be for people today. The colonists were more active and needed more protein. Heart attack was the least of their worries. They were more concerned about the plague and pox.

People tend to think of English food as bland, but, in fact, the pilgrims used many spices, including cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and dried fruit, in sauces for meats.
In the seventeenth century, cooks did not use proportions or talk about teaspoons and tablespoons. Instead, they just improvised.
The best way to cook things in the seventeenth century was to roast them. Among the pilgrims, someone was assigned to sit for hours at a time and turn the spit to make sure the meat was evenly done.
Since the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians had no refrigeration in the seventeenth century, they tended to dry a lot of their foods to preserve them. They dried Indian corn, hams, fish, and herbs.
They didn't have ovens so pies and cakes and breads most likely never made it to that first Thanksgiving dinner table in Plymouth.

The biggest meal of the day for the colonists was eaten at noon and it was called noonmeat or dinner. The housewives would spend part of their morning cooking that meal. Supper was a smaller meal that they had at the end of the day. Breakfast tended to be leftovers from the previous day's noonmeat.
In a pilgrim household, the adults sat down to eat and the children and servants waited on them.
The foods that the colonists and Wampanoag Indians ate were very similar, but their eating patterns were different. While the colonists had set eating patterns - breakfast, dinner, and supper - the Wampanoags tended to eat when they were hungry and to have pots cooking throughout the day.

Today’s Celebration

While cooking methods and table etiquette have changed as the holiday has evolved, the meal is still consumed today with the same spirit of celebration and overindulgence. Today we enjoy delicious meals served in a warm home where it's quite possible a football game can be heard from a nearby television set. At the dining room table many Americans may enjoy herb-roasted turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, creamed corn, candied yams, almond green beans, cranberry-orange relish, turnip, popovers with butter, pumpkin pie, mince pie, apple pie, and vanilla ice cream.

Although there are many differences between the first Thanksgiving in 1621 and the holiday we celebrate today, the one tradition that remains constant is the celebration of being thankful.

Source: Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation
All Photos Courtesy of Plimouth Plantation, Inc., Plymouth, MA. USA

"The reason that we have so many myths associated with Thanksgiving is that it is an invented tradition. It doesn't originate in any one event. It is based on the New England puritan Thanksgiving, which is a religious Thanksgiving, and the traditional harvest celebrations of England and New England and maybe other ideas like commemorating the pilgrims. All of these have been gathered together and transformed into something different from the original parts." - James W. Baker, Senior Historian at Plimoth Plantation

MYTH: The first Thanksgiving was in 1621 and the pilgrims celebrated it every year thereafter.

FACT: The first feast wasn't repeated, so it wasn't the beginning of a tradition. In fact, the colonists didn't even call the day Thanksgiving. To them, a thanksgiving was a religious holiday in which they would go to church and thank God for a specific event, such as the winning of a battle. On such a religious day, the types of recreational activities that the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians participated in during the 1621 harvest feast--dancing, singing secular songs, playing games--wouldn't have been allowed. The feast was a secular celebration, so it never would have been considered a thanksgiving in the pilgrim’s minds.

MYTH: The original Thanksgiving feast took place on the fourth Thursday of November.

FACT: The original feast in 1621 occurred sometime between September 21 and November 11. Unlike our modern holiday, it was three days long. The event was based on English harvest festivals, which traditionally occurred around the 29th of September. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set the date for Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941). Abraham Lincoln had previously designated it as the last Thursday in November, which may have correlated it with the November 21, 1621, anchoring of the Mayflower at Cape Cod.

MYTH: The pilgrims wore only black and white clothing. They had buckles on their hats, garments, and shoes.

FACT: Buckles did not come into fashion until later in the seventeenth century and black and white were commonly worn only on Sunday and formal occasions. Women typically dressed in red, earthy green, brown, blue, violet, and gray, while men wore clothing in white, beige, black, earthy green, and brown.

MYTH: The pilgrims brought furniture with them on the Mayflower.

FACT: The only furniture that the pilgrims brought on the Mayflower was chests and boxes. They constructed wooden furniture once they settled in Plymouth.

MYTH: The Mayflower was headed for Virginia, but due to a navigational mistake it ended up in Cape Cod Massachusetts.

FACT: The Pilgrims were in fact planning to settle in Virginia, but not the modern-day state of Virginia. They were part of the Virginia Company, which had the rights to most of the eastern seaboard of the U.S. The pilgrims had intended to go to the Hudson River region in New York State, which would have been considered "Northern Virginia," but they landed in Cape Cod instead. Treacherous seas prevented them from venturing further south.

Thanksgiving Weather Forecast

    Turkeys will thaw in the morning, then warm in the oven to an afternoon high near 190F. The kitchen will turn hot and humid, and if you bother the cook, be ready for a severe squall or cold shoulder.
    During the late afternoon and evening, the cold front of a knife will slice through the turkey, causing an accumulation of one to two inches on plates. Mashed potatoes will drift across one side while cranberry sauce creates slippery spots on the other. Please pass the gravy.
    A weight watch and indigestion warning have been issued for the entire area, with increased stuffiness around the beltway. During the evening, the turkey will diminish and taper off to leftovers, dropping to a low of 34F in the refrigerator.
    Looking ahead to Friday and Saturday, high pressure to eat sandwiches will be established. Flurries of leftovers can be expected both days with a 50 percent chance of scattered soup late in the day. We expect a warming trend where soup develops. By early next week, eating pressure will be low as the only wish left will be the bone.

THANKSGIVING DAY PRAYER (One like this may have been used during the first Thanksgivings of our nation.)

We give thanks, O God, for our plentiful harvest, for shielding our land safe from enemy invasion, for keeping our homes free of government intervention. Help us to use wisely the gifts we are intended to use. Let those of us who receive much, give generously from our abundance. May those of us whose needs are met through the gifts of others be thankful.

Did You Know?

Thanksgiving is not just a U.S. holiday.
Canada declared their Thanksgiving holiday in 1879. They observe it on the second Monday in October

The average American eats 18 lbs. of turkey a year.

The average person consumes 4500 calories on Thanksgiving Day.

Why does a Pilgrim's pants always fall down?
Because he wears his belt buckle on his hat.

hat

Q. What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter?
A. Pumpkin pi.

Q: What's a turkey's favorite song?
A: "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas."

Q: If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?
A: Pilgrims.

pilgrims

turkey

Turkey 101:

Here are some handy, quick tips for roasting the perfect holiday turkey.

Thawing: Never thaw your turkey at room temperature. Thawing in the refrigerator takes about one day for every four pounds.

Prepping. Remove the giblets from the inner cavity and rinse the turkey, then pat dry.

Sanitation: Clean up spills and food contact surfaces with sanitizer, and wash hands after each turkey handling.

Stuffing: pact it loosely in the turkey, stuffing expands. Skewer the cavity loosely shut. Plan about one cup per pound. Once cooked, unstuff the bird before carving.

Cooking: Cook the turkey on a rack in a maximum 2”deep roasting pan, and baste with melted, unsalted butter or broth every hour to prevent drying out. You may loosely cover the bird with foil for the last hour, to prevent over browning.

When is it done: When it reaches at least an internal temperature of 175 – 180 F degrees in the breast – thigh and 160 in the stuffing. Juices should run clear, with no pink. Use a meat thermometer to check temperatures.

Turkey Cooking Times: Choose the right size bird and cook at 325 F:

ALLOT 1lb. per person. See chart below to determine the appropriate size turkey for your family gathering. You may want to buy a fresh turkey as opposed to frozen to avoid days of thawing

8-12 pounds	feeds 8 – 15 people	cooks 2.75 – 3.5 hours
12 – 16 pounds	feeds 12 – 20 people	cooks 3 to 4.5 hours
16 – 20 pounds	feeds 16 – 25 people	cooks 4.5 to 5.5 hours

turkey

A change for the traditional Dressing

Jalapeno Cornbread Dressing

Serving Size: 12

Ingredients:

4 Cups cornbread crumbled
10 Slices dried bread cubed
1 Pound MILD ITALIAN TURKEY SAUSAGE
1-1/2 Cups celery chopped
1 Cup onion chopped
1-1/2 Teaspoons salt
1 Teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 Cup Jalapeno peppers seeded and chopped
2 eggs slightly beaten
1 Cup TURKEY BROTH

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325.
In large bowl combine cornbread and bread cubes.
In large skillet, over medium-high heat, saute sausage, celery and onion until sausage is no longer pink and vegetables are tender; combine with cornbread mixture.
Add salt, poultry seasoning, jalapeno peppers, eggs and turkey broth.
Spoon dressing into lightly greased 3-quart casserole dish.
Bake, covered, at 325 degrees F. 45 to 50 minutes.
Source: The National Turkey Federation

Turkey Trivia: Fun Facts About America's Favorite Bird

A long time centerpiece of American holiday feasts, the turkey has a colorful delicious history. Here are some intriguing facts about our nation’s favorite bird, that you may not know:

Turkeys originated in North and Central America, and evidence indicates that they have been around for over 10 million years.

Until 1863, Thanksgiving Day had not been celebrated annually since the first feast in 1621. This changed in 1863 when Sarah Josepha Hale encouraged Abraham Lincoln to set aside the last Thursday in November "as a day for national thanksgiving and prayer."

The American Indians hunted wild turkey for its sweet, juicy meat as early as 1000 AD. Turkey feathers were used to stabilize arrows and adorn ceremonial dress, and the spurs on the legs of wild tom turkeys were used as projectiles on arrowheads. They also shared a place in their folklore. The Navajos tell of an enormous hen turkey that flew over their fields bringing them corn and teaching them how to cultivate their crops. The Apache Indians considered the turkey timid and wouldn't eat it or use its feathers on their arrows

In Mexico, the turkey was considered a sacrificial bird. As an article of tribute Montezuma received 365,000 turkeys per year from his subjects.

Benjamin Franklin was displeased when the bald eagle was chosen over his proposed “original native” turkey as a national symbol. He said the turkey is a more respectable bird and a true original native of America.

Turkey eggs are pale creamy tan with brown speckles, and twice as large as chicken eggs. They hatch in 28 days. A baby turkey is called a poult and is tan and brown.

A large group of turkeys is called a flock.

Turkeys have great hearing, a poor sense of smell, but an excellent sense of taste. They can also see in color, and have excellent visual acuity and a wide field of vision (about 270 degrees), which makes sneaking up on them difficult.

Turkeys are fed mainly a balanced diet of corn and soybean meal mixed with a supplement of vitamins and minerals. On average, it takes 75-80 pounds of feed to raise a 30-pound tom turkey.

Domesticated turkeys (farm raised) cannot fly. Wild turkeys can fly for short distances at up to 55 miles per hour. Wild turkeys are also fast on the ground, running at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour.

Only male turkeys (toms) gobble. Females (hens) make a clicking noise. The gobble is a seasonal call during the spring and fall. Hens are attracted for mating when a tom gobbles. Wild toms love to gobble when they hear loud sounds or settle in for the night.

The heaviest turkey ever raised weighed in at 86 pounds -- about the size of a large German Shepherd -- and was grown in England, according to Dr. Sarah Birkhold, poultry specialist with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service.

Mature turkeys have 3,500 or so feathers. The Apache Indians considered the turkey timid and wouldn't eat it or use its feathers on their arrows.

More than 45 million turkeys are cooked and 535 million pounds of turkey are eaten during Thanksgiving.

Ninety percent of American homes eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day. Fifty percent eat turkey on Christmas.

North Carolina produces 61 million turkeys annually, more than any other state. Minnesota and Arkansas are number two and three.

The fleshy growth from the base of the beak, which is very long on male turkeys and hangs down over the beak, is called the snood.

The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 15 pounds. A 15-pound turkey typically has about 70% white meat and 30% dark meat.

Last year 2.74 billion pounds of turkey were processed in the United States.

Californians are the biggest turkey eaters in the country. They eat three pounds more turkey than the average American consumer.

The good old-fashioned turkey sandwich is the most popular way for Americans to prepare the fowl, accounting for 44 percent of consumption.

In the last twenty years, Americans' love of turkey has soared. Consumption based upon USDA data indicates:

Year	Annual Per Capita Turkey Consumption - Boneless Wt.	Year	Annual Per Capita Turkey Consumption - Boneless Wt.
1980	8.1 lb.	1995	14.3 lb.
1985	9.2 lb.	1999	17.95 lb.
1990	13.9 lb.	2001	18 lb.

Thanksgiving Trivia

According to the Butterball Corp., they recommend that you thaw an unwrapped turkey I the refrigerator how long per 4 pounds of bird?

a. One hour per 4 pounds

b. 8 hours per 4 pounds

c. One Day per 4 pounds

d. 4 hours per 4 pounds (or 1 hour per pound)

Thanksgiving is celebrated only in the US. True or False?

The Greek Goddess of Corn is”

a. Demeter

b. Cornucopia

c. Ceres

d. Grainophillia

The first department store to hold a Thanksgiving parade was:

a. Montgomery Wards

b. J.C. Penney’s

c. Gimbel’s

d. Macy’s

e. None of the above. It was a non-commercial event.

What is the name of the famous rock credited as where the Pilgrims first landed?

Butterball says that once the turkey is done, you should let it stand for 15 minutes before serving because:

a. So you don’t burn your tongue when you eat it.

b. It’s easier to carver

c. To let the aroma go through the house

d. To let the stuffing cool a bit before you take it out.

The Indians who were invited to the Thanksgiving feast were of the Wampanoag tribe. Who was their chief?

a. Massosoit

b. Pemaquid

c. Samoset

d. Squanto

What was the name of the ship the pilgrims came over on?

Who was the captain of this ship?

Thanksgiving became a national holiday thanks to this woman who was an editor of a woman’s magazine:

a. Sarah Hale

b. Sarah Parker

c. Sarah Bradford

d. Sarah Standish

Which President was the first to declare Thanksgiving a national day to be held the 4^th Thursday in November?

a. Abraham Lincoln

b. Franklin D. Roosevelt

c. Thomas Jefferson

d. James Madison

In Canada, they celebrate Thanksgiving in what month?

a. November

b. October

c. September

d. May

The term Cornucopia means what?

a. Tall corn

b. Greek God of Corn

c. Horn of Plenty

d. A traditional New England relish

What was the original name for the Pilgrims?

a. Puritans

b. Partisans

c. Settlers

d. Journeymen

Butterball recommends you cover the breast and the top of the drumsticks with aluminum foil when?

a. Right away when you first put it in to cook

b. When it is half-way done

c. When it is 2/3 cooked

d. The last 15 minutes of cooking

What part of the turkey is saved and snapped as a superstitious good luck custom?

The word turkey is said to come from the Hebrew work “Tukki” which means:

a. Big Bird

b. Temperamental Bird

c. Wild Bird

d. Tall Bird

Which President moved Thanksgiving up one week to help stimulate the Christmas shopping economy?

a. Theodore Roosevelt

b. John Kennedy

c. Franklin D. Roosevelt

d. Dwight D. Eisenhower

e. None of the above. It never was changed.

What is the name of the book that Governor William Bradford wrote telling of the troubles and experiences of the pilgrim?

a. Pilgrim’s Progress

b. Of Plimouth Plantation

c. Of Plimouth Rock

d. Trials and Tribulations of Plimouth Times

e. It had no title. It was just his diary.

Captain John Smith founded what colony in Virginia?

What poet wrote “The Courtship of Miles Standish”?

a. Longfellow

b. Keats

c. Yeats

d. Shelley

The pilgrims took beer with them on their voyage. True or False?

Butterball says that when making your turkey stuffing, you should have all the ingredients already cooked before you put it into the bird. True or False?

The town of Plymouth, Massachusetts celebrates this on December 11^th every year:

a. Miles Standish’s Birthday

b. Forefather’s Day

c. Priscilla Alden’s Birthday

d. William Bradford’s death

The real Plymouth rock is cracked. True or False?

Indian corn is for decoration purposes only and not for cooking. True or False?

In what year did the first Macy’s Thanksgiving parade take place?

a. 1864

b. 1894

c. 1904

d. 1924

Thanksgiving is a religious holiday. True or False?

Butterball says the best place to put the meat thermometer in the turkey is:

a. Breast

b. Thigh

c. Top of the Leg

d. At an angle so it hits both the meat and stuffing

Why is the turkey often called “Tom Turkey”?

a. Because it’s a term ---tom refers to a male bird

b. After Thomas Jefferson

c. Because Indians would catch them by pounding on tom-tom drums to lure them into traps.

d. From an 18^th century political cartoon.

What US town is the home of the world’s largest turkey?

Where is the biggest pumpkin pie made in the US?

Where is the biggest pumpkin pie made in the world?

On June 20, 1998, in Bellevue Ohio, Dale Gasteier built a 52 foot what to celebrate the American Thanksgiving holiday?

Every year the President of the US pardons a turkey. Once this turkey’s life is sparred, where does it go to live out the rest of its days?

Before being harvested and sold, an individual cranberry must bounce at least how many inches high to make sure they aren’t too ripe?

a. 1 inch

b. 2 inches

c. 3 inches

d. 4 inches

The busiest travel day of the year is:

a. The Friday after Thanksgiving

b. The day after Christmas

c. The day after New Years

d. The day after Labor Day

The first meal eaten on the moon by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren was a roasted turkey dinner with all the trimmings. True or False?

Which balloon was the first balloon in the 1927 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade:

a. Mickey Mouse

b. Felix the Cat

c. Betty Boop

d. Superman

Turkeys can drown if they look up in the rain. True or False?

Each person in the US consumes an average of how many pounds of turkey per year?

a. 8 pounds

b. 12 pounds

c. 18 pounds

d. More than 20 pounds

The following towns with “turkey” in their names are really towns in the United States. Turkey, Texas; Turkey Creek, Louisiana; Turkey, North Carolina and Turkey Feather, New Mexico. True or False?

Historians have proven that the pilgrims didn’t really wear those funny hats and buckles on their shoes. True or False?

The longest balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is:

a. Spiderman

b. Superman

c. Wonder Woman

d. Barney the Dinosaur

The heaviest turkey ever recorded was in 1967. It weighed:

a. 75 pounds

b. 85 pounds

c. 100 pounds

d. More than 100 pounds

Answers to Thanksgiving Trivia

Thanksgiving Word Search Puzzle

Apple Pie
Corn
Cranberry Sauce
Mashed Potatoes
Pumpkin Pie

Rolls
Stuffing
Sweet Potatoes
Thanksgiving Food
Turkey

THANKSGIVING POEMS