Thanksgiving Day Celebration - Facts And Myths
In four month's time, on the 4th Thursday of November, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day 2012. You've possibly celebrated many Thanksgivings with your loved ones, but our bet is that there are still a few things you dont know about this American holiday. The following are some interesting facts about Thanksgiving.
The Turkey Tradition
More than forty million turkeys -or about 740 million pounds of turkey meat - will be devoured during this American Holiday. Minnesota is the United States top turkey-producing state, followed by North Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, Virginia, and Indiana. These states produce 2 in every 3 US raised poultry.
Every year at least 2 lucky turkeys are saved from being served on the dinner table because of a longstanding tradition since Washingtons time of giving presidential pardon to these turkeys.
The turkeys we eat these days to commemorate the first Thanksgiving aren't really historically precise considering that the pilgrims would have had wild turkey, which are much smaller but are also capable of flying in bursts unlike farm-bred turkeys. Wild turkeys were extremely common in America in the eighteenth century that Benjamin Franklin even wanted the turkey to be the official US bird, not the bald eagle.
The First Thanksgiving Menu
Interestingly, the main dish when Pilgrims celebrated the first thanksgiving in 1621 in what is now the area of Massachusetts was venison, not turkey. In fact, much of what we regard as traditional Thanksgiving food was unknown at the first Thanksgiving. Potatoes and sweet potatoes weren't introduced yet that time, and cranberry sauce was difficult to find. Pumpkin pie was also not yet served then then because of the lack of ingredients for the crust. If you would like eat like a Pilgrim yourself this Thanksgiving Weekend 2012, serve stewed pumpkin, succotash, and venison dishes instead.
Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade
The tradition was first celebrated in 1924, and unlike the helium-filled balloons we see nowadays, the first three parades featured Central Park Zoo animals. The balloons were used only in 1927, and in the twenties, were launched above the skyline with the assurance of rewards for their finders.
For 242 years it was not a holiday It is the 1621 Plymouth Thanksgiving that is associated to the birth of this present-day holiday. Just about everything that we know concerning the Plymouth celebration is based on a description in a letter penned by Edward Winslow, the leader of that colony. However that letter went missing for 200 years, and was only found again in the 1800s. From that letter though, it was apparent that the feast was not a celebration which was made to be commemorated each year. The said letter has been talked about extensively in various magazines, and in 1863, US President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving Day a national holiday. For more information on thanksgiving, follow this link.