The Thanksgiving Holiday is a time to take a break from work and give thanks.  It is a holiday that nearly everyone in the US celebrates. It is a time to watch football, possibly eat too much and spend quality time with the family!  It is a holiday that we celebrate year after year which means that you should be aware of all of the facts of how and why we celebrate it, right? If not, don’t worry, here are a few facts about Thanksgiving you can use as conversation starters for one of America’s favorite holidays!

 

 

• The most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth Colony (present day Massachusetts) in 1621.
• The Author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, Sarah Josepha Hale is largely accountable for the establishment of the national Thanksgiving Holiday.  It took her 20 years of campaigning to five separate Presidents, finally convincing Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to declare Thanksgiving a National Holiday.
• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Minnesota is the top Turkey-producing state in America.
• The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 15 pounds.
• In 2008, the largest pumpkin pie ever was baked weighing 2,020 pounds and measuring over 12 feet long, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
• There is a long-standing Washington tradition since Harry Truman.  At least two lucky turkeys avoid hitting the dinner table thanks to the presidential pardon.
• Although they are a Thanksgiving staple these days, Cranberries were actually used by Native Americans to treat arrow wounds and to dye clothes.
• The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, first televised nationally in 1947, now draws some 44 million viewers—not counting the 3 million people who actually line the 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) Manhattan route.
• The only things that were known to have been served at the first Thanksgiving feast were deer, various types of fowl, flint corn, cod, bass and other types of fish.
• Sarah Josepha Hale contributed more than just the original idea for Thanksgiving Dinner – she also published several recipes as a ‘model’ for the Annual Thanksgiving Holiday.  These recipes included turkey, pumpkin pie and stuffing.

Sources: www.history.com; www.nationalgeographic.com;

Everyone at New Empire Group would like to wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

 

**Please note our office will be closing at 12 p.m. on Wednesday, November 27^th.  We will resume regular business hours on Monday, December 2^nd.