Today is Thanksgiving and I thought it would be fun to share five things you may not know about this holiday that kicks off the gift giving season for most of America. While we Americans prepare to stuff our faces with carbohydrate-laden dishes, here are a few bits of knowledge that you can share with your in-laws.
The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 when the pilgrims, nearly a year off of their ship, the Mayflower, shared three days of thanks and feasting with the local tribe of American Indians, known as the Wampanoag. By this time, only about half of the Pilgrims were left alive and the Indians were helping them survive by sharing some of their hunting and harvesting secrets with them.
Thanksgiving fell on hard times after that. It was George Washington who proclaimed two official holidays of Thanksgiving in 1789 and again in 1795, but the idea didn’t stick. The state of New York made it an annual custom in 1817, but we have Sarah Josepha Hale to thank for creating the custom we know today. This woman, who is also noted for writing the words to “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, and editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, requested the holiday which was signed into law by Abraham Lincoln in 1863.
Originally, the Thanksgiving holiday was proclaimed to be set on the last Thursday in November. However, each president could change the day of Thanksgiving as they deemed necessary. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made Thanksgiving the last Thursday in November as a way of helping the Christmas season begin and help our nation which was in the middle of the Great Depression. Congress made it official in 1941 and it has been that way ever since.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade began in 1924 when the employees of the famous department store initiated it’s existence. Helium balloons in 1927. Balloons have always been an integral part of the parade because in the early years, they were released at the end of the parade with gift certificates. Today’s huge helium balloons can take up to six hours to inflate and need 50 handlers to hold them down. The parade traditionally ends with the arrival of Santa Claus, thus kicking off the holiday shopping season.
In 1937, the NFL wanted to host a game on Thanksgiving Day. They sent the word out to all if the teams, but the Detroit Lions – one of the original football franchises from Portsmouth, Ohio – was the only team that offered to play the holiday lineup and the owner was looking for a way to boost turnout. Even though the Lions haven’t won many games, their tradition to Thanksgiving fans everywhere has always been there. In 1966, the NFL decided to add a second game and the Dallas Cowboys answered the call. They have had a much more successful game record, by comparison.
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