In just a few days, Americans will be celebrating Thanksgiving, hopefully with their families and loved ones, even if it means traveling far and wide by planes, trains and automobilies.
It will be a day of giving thanks, thanks to the Republicans for not holding a debate on Thanksgiving, thanks that the Joy Behar show has been cancelled, thanks that Charlie Sheen miraculously is still among the living, thanks that Lebron James went another year without a ring, and thanks that the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue hasn’t been foreclosed on, not yet anyway.
So as we anxiously await the holiday, I prepared a plateful of information to feast on about things you might not have known about Thanksgiving.
• In the autumn of 1621, 51 Pilgrims and 90 Indians in the colony of Plymouth held the day harvest feast in what would become the first Thanksgiving.
• The first recorded formal proclamation of Thanksgiving was in Charleston, Mass. in 1676.
• The first Thanksgiving consisted of boiled eels and venison; ducks and other waterfowl, lams and mussels, corn bread, leeks, plums, and sweet wine made from the native grapes.
• Historical records show that In America, Thanksgiving feasts occurred in settlements in what is now Texas, Florida, Maine, and Virginia prior to the celebration in Plymouth
• It would take 320 years after the Pilgrims held the first Thanksgiving for it to achieve full legal status.
• Beginning in 1846, Sara Joseph Hale, editor of Godey’s Magazine published editorials, encouraging governors of states and territories to make Thanksgiving a legal holiday.
• Prior to Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation in 1863, three presidents, George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison, issued informal proclamations of a national day of Thanksgiving, while President Thomas Jefferson, who considered Thanksgiving purely a religious celebration, reasoned that the U.S. government was in no position to involve itself with the day since the U.S. Constitution specifically prohibits any connection between church and state.
• Prior to Thanksgiving being declared a national holiday, there were only two national holidays: Washington’s Birthday (February 22), and Independence Day (July 4).
• The Intercollegiate Football Association, an organization maintained by college students, scheduled its first championship game on Thanksgiving Day in 1876.
• As late as the 1880’s, The Catholic Church didn’t recognize Thanksgiving as a holiday, reasoning it was strictly a Protestant rite.
• William DeLoss Love, a Congregationalist minister and member of the Sons of the American Revolution wrote the first history of Thanksgiving in 1895: ``Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England’’.
• When the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade began in 1924, many consider this the beginning of the official commercialization of the holiday.
• In the Thanksgiving issue of the Saturday Evening Post for 1931, an advertisement for Camels plugged the cigarettes as "something to be thankful for."
• In 1934 on Thanksgiving Day, the Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lion 19-16 in the first NFL game to be broadcast on national radio, NBC.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 changed the date of Thanksgiving to the third Thursday in November to lengthen the Christmas shopping season; only to revert back to fourth Thursday in November two years later.
• In 1947, the first official National Thanksgiving Turkey was presented to President Harry Truman, who followed President Lincoln’s example by pardoning it.
• NBC began televising the Thanksgiving Parade in 1948.
• By 1956, NFL games were televised on Thanksgiving.
• On November 11, 1962, before a national televised audience, 57,598 fans at Tiger Stadium watched the Lions sack Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr 11 times for a total loss of 110 yards. It was the Packers’ only loss of the year.
• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are four places in the United States named Turkey. Turkey Creek, La., was the most populous in 2010, with 441 residents, followed by Turkey, Texas (421), Turkey Creek, Ariz. (294), and Turkey, N.C. (292). There are also 11 townships around the country with Turkey in their names, including three in Kansas.
• The American Automobile Association projects 42.5 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles during the Thanksgiving weekend, an increase of 4 percent from the 40.9 million people who traveled last year.
• According to Orbitz.com, the busiest airport from November 23rd to 27th will be Los Angeles International Airport; the least congested will be Mineta San Jose International.
• According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the average price of a traditional Thanksgiving meal is up about 13 percent from 2010.
• The National Restaurant Association estimates that 14 million Americans will visit a restaurant for a Thanksgiving meal this year, and an additional 16 million will use restaurant takeout.
-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
November 21, 2011
Source: ``The History of Thanksgiving in the United States'' Journal of Social History (Summer, 1999); ``The First Thanksgiving'' Gastronomical: The Journal of Food and Culture, (Fall 2003); ``A Thanksgiving Tradition’’ American History, Nov/Dec95, Vol. 30.
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