Just thought we should post something fun about the holiday. I hope everyone has a happy and safe thanksgiving! Bone is thankful for all of our followers.
Top Ten Thanksgiving Facts
1. In 1621, the Pilgrims shared a harvest meal with the Wampanoag Indians in a Plymouth Colony in what is now the state of Massachusetts. It has been acknowledged as the first Thanksgiving celebration. It was a sharing of friendship and trust and of course food.
2. President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as the national day of thanksgiving in 1863.
3. It was not until 1941, Congress made Thanksgiving Day a National Holiday.
4. According to the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association, one of the country's oldest farmers' organizations, Native Americans used cranberries in a variety of foods, including "pemmican" (a nourishing, high-protein combination of crushed berries, dried deer meat and melted fat). They also used it as a medicine to treat arrow punctures and other wounds and as a dye for fabric. The Pilgrims adopted these uses for the fruit and gave it a name—"craneberry"—because its drooping pink blossoms in the spring reminded them of a crane.
5. The tradition of playing or watching football on Thanksgiving started with the first National Football League game on the holiday in 1934.
6. The idea of a department-store parade originated in 1920 with Gimbels Department Store in Philadelphia with the parade now known as the 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade. Macy's did not start a parade until 1924. When Gimbels closed down in 1986, television station WPVI took over responsibility for the parade, with sponsorship by Reading, Pennsylvania-based Boscov's. Currently, Channel 6ABC and IKEA sponsor the parade. Gimbels Department Store was located at 9th and Market Street in Philadelphia now a parking lot awaiting further development.
7. On November 20, 2007, President George W. Bush granted a "pardon" to two turkeys, named May and Flower, at the 60th annual National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation, held in the Rose Garden at the White House. The two turkeys were flown to Orlando, Fla., where they served as honorary grand marshals for the Disney World Thanksgiving Parade.
8. The current tradition of presidential turkey pardons began in 1947, under Harry Truman, but the practice is said to have informally begun with Abraham Lincoln, who granted a pardon to his son Tad's pet turkey.
9. In 2009, President Obama pardoned a turkey named Courage. I am personally glad he kept that one alive.
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