|
|
|
|
Home > Arts and Crafts Projects for Kids > Thanksgiving Crafts > Thanksgiving Fun Facts and History Trivia arts and crafts projects
Below you will find many Thanksgiving Fun Facts and Trivia for kids and family fun. Find out fun facts and trivia knowledge about Thanksgiving's history for children.
(1) Thanksgiving was 100s of years old tradition that most countries around the world already celebrated. Most cultures celebrated Thanksgiving after the Autumn / Fall harvest in which neighbors shared a feast together. Now it is mostly known as an American holidays. a centuries-old tradition held by most cultures around the world. After the autumn harvest, communities held 3-day-long feasts, sharing meat, bread and beer. Today, Thanksgiving is known best as an US public holiday.
(2) The first American Thanksgiving was held by approximately 50 Plymouth pilgrims and approximately 90 neighboring Wampanoag indians (Native Americans) in Autumn of 1621 in Massachusetts. Thanksgiving celebrations were pretty sporadic and random after that.
(3) The reason for the original pilgrims to hold a feast was because only half of those who sailed the Mayflower across the Atlantic to North America in 1620 had survived the year and they were celebrating their own survival by holding a feast.
(4) The first Thanksgiving feast lasted an entire 3 days.
(5) The Pilgrims brought beer with them on the Mayflower to North America.
(6) The Wampanoag indians taught the Pilgrims how to farm and cultivate their land to grow corn and other vegetables to survive the difficult Winters.
(7) In 1777 to 1783, the US Congress proclaimed Thanksgiving an annual celebration to be held each December.
(8) Sarah Josepha Hale was the magazine editor to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in the mid 1800s. She was also the writer of "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
(9) George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison all declared a Thanksgiving holiday in their presidential terms...but didn't stick as a national holiday.
(10) Thanksgiving as a national holiday finally stuck when Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday to be held the last Thursday in November...but this was never signed as a law. It wasn't until President Roosevelt signed a bill in 1941 sanctifying Thanksgiving as the 4th Thursday of every November as a national public holiday.
(11) Turkey is the traditional dish served because in the 1600s, Turkeys were the most plentiful of meats.
(12) Canada also celebrates Thanksgiving, however their Thanksgiving is held on the second Monday in October.
(13) An astonishing 92% of Americans eat Turkey at their Thanksgiving feast.
(14) Believe it or not, Thomas Jefferson was said to have thought that the idea of Thanksgiving was "the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard."
(15) 50% of people still cook their stuffing inside the Turkey even though this increases the chances of food poisening.
(16) On the west coast of America, the Dungeness crab is served instead of Turkey at the Thanksgiving table.
(17) The reason that the Native Americans are called indians is because Christopher Columbus believed that he had discovered a land connected to India. He also thought that the Turkey was a type of peacock.
(18) An estimated 46 million turkeys were eaten at Thanksgiving. This is 20% of the numbers of Turkeys that are eaten all year.
(19) Turkeys can drown if looking up while it is raining.
(20) Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird.
(21) Only male turkeys gobble because they use it as a mating call.
(22) A turkey that is 16 weeks of age or under is called a fryer and a 5 to 7 month old turkey is called a roaster.
(23) The average amount of calories eaten on Thanksgiving is about 4,500 calories.