How much do you know about these Thanksgiving “facts?”
Courtesy photos
PICKENS COUNTY — Each year, millions of Americans gather around the table for a Thanksgiving feast, but how much do you really know about the holiday?
Fact or fiction: Thanksgiving is always held on the last Thursday of November.
You probably want to say yes — but not so fast! In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln did designate the last Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving.
However, in 1939, after a request from the National Retail Dry Goods Association, President Franklin Roosevelt decreed that the holiday should always be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month (and never the occasional fifth, as occurred in 1939) in order to extend the holiday shopping season by a week.
The decision sparked great controversy, and was still unresolved two years later, when the House of Representatives passed a resolution making the last Thursday in November a legal national holiday. The Senate amended the resolution, setting the date as the fourth Thursday and the House eventually agreed.
Fact or fiction: Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey as the national bird.
This one’s true.
In a letter to his daughter sent in 1784, Franklin suggested that the wild turkey would be a more appropriate national symbol for the newly independent United States than the bald eagle (which had earlier been chosen by the Continental Congress).
He argued that the turkey was “a much more respectable bird,” “a true original native of America,” and “though a little vain and silly, a bird of courage.”
Luckily, everyone else disagreed.
Fact or fiction: Lincoln was the first president to proclaim a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863.
Nope. George Washington, John Adams and James Madison all issued proclamations urging Americans to observe days of thanksgiving, both for general good fortune and for particularly momentous events (the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, in Washington’s case; the end of the War of 1812, in Madison’s).
Although, as mentioned above, Lincoln did pick the date that (kind of) stuck.
Fact or Fiction: Macy’s was the first store to sponsor a Thanksgiving Day parade.
Wrong again. It was actually the Philadelphia department store Gimbel’s that was first in 1920. Unfortunately for Gimbel’s, the Macy’s parade — launched four years later — became a Thanksgiving tradition and the standard kickoff to the holiday shopping season.
The parade became ever more well-known after it featured prominently in the hit film Miracle on 34th Street in 1947, which shows actual footage of the 1946 parade.
Fact or fiction: Turkeys can’t fly.
Not so fast! While domesticated, farm raised turkeys cannot fly, their brothers in the wild are much smaller and more agile.
Not only can they can reach speeds of up to 20-25 miles per hour on the ground, they can fly for short distances at speeds approaching 55 miles per hour. They also have better eyesight and hearing than their domestic counterparts.
Fact or fiction: Native Americans used cranberries for cooking and medicine.
This one’s true. According to the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association, Native Americans used cranberries in a variety of foods, including “pemmican” — which is a high-protein combination of the crushed berries, dried deer meat and melted fat.
They also used the fruit as a medicine to treat arrow punctures and other wounds and as 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.
Fact or fiction: A popular dance was inspired by a turkey’s movement.
This is weird, but true. The turkey trot, modeled on that bird’s characteristic short, jerky steps, was one of a number of popular dance styles that emerged during the late 19th and early 20th century.
The two-step, a simple dance that required little to no instruction, was quickly followed by such dances as the one-step, the turkey trot, the fox trot and the bunny hug, which could all be performed to the ragtime and jazz music popular at the time.
Fact or fiction: In 2007 two turkeys were “pardoned” at The White House — and went to Disney?
Yep. On Nov. 20, 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.
They weren’t the first to be spared from the White House dinner table either. In fact, 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.
Fact or fiction: Eating turkey makes you sleepy.
Fact. Turkey does contain the essential amino acid tryptophan, which is a natural sedative. The weird part is so do a lot of other foods, including chicken, beef, pork, beans and cheese.
Though many people believe turkey’s tryptophan content is what makes many people feel sleepy after a big Thanksgiving meal, it is more likely the combination of fats and carbohydrates most people eat with the turkey, as well as the large amount of food (not to mention alcohol, in some cases) consumed, that makes most people feel like following their meal up with a nap.
OK, last one …
Fact or fiction: Football on turkey day started with the NFL on the holiday in 1934.
Fiction. The American tradition of college football on Thanksgiving is pretty much as old as the sport itself.
In fact, the newly formed American Intercollegiate Football Association held its first championship game on Thanksgiving Day in 1876.
At the time, it wasn’t football like you and I know it today, the sport resembled something between rugby. By the 1890s, more than 5,000 club, college and high school football games were taking place on Thanksgiving and championship match-ups between schools like Princeton and Yale could draw up to 40,000 fans.
The NFL took up the tradition in 1934, when the Detroit Lions played the Chicago Bears at the University of Detroit stadium in front of 26,000 fans.
Since then, the Lions game on Thanksgiving has become an annual event, taking place every year except during the World War II.
Reach Kasie Strickland at 864-855-0355.