50 Amazing Thanksgiving facts

50 Thanksgiving facts to enhance your knowledge of this special holiday:

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States.

The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Native Americans.

The Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower to America seeking religious freedom.

The first Thanksgiving feast lasted for three days.

Turkey wasn't the main dish at the first Thanksgiving; other foods included venison, fish, and various wild birds.

President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City has been an annual event since 1924.

The wishbone tradition comes from the belief that birds are fortune-tellers.

Turkeys can run up to 20-25 miles per hour and fly up to 55 miles per hour.

A group of turkeys is called a "rafter" or "gang."

The Pilgrims didn't use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers.

The first TV dinner was a Thanksgiving meal, introduced in 1953.

The Horn of Plenty or "Cornucopia" is a symbol of abundance often associated with Thanksgiving.

The Guinness World Record for the largest pumpkin pie weighed over 3,699 pounds.

In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October.

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

The presidential pardon of a turkey has been a tradition since 1989.

The word "Thanksgiving" in German is "Erntedankfest."

Many Native American tribes have their own harvest festivals and traditions.

Some Native American groups do not celebrate Thanksgiving due to its association with colonization.

Green bean casserole is a popular Thanksgiving side dish, invented in 1955.

The Pilgrims used to boil cranberries with sugar to make the first cranberry sauce.

Sharing what you're thankful for around the dinner table is a common Thanksgiving tradition.

The first Thanksgiving football game was played in 1876 between Yale and Princeton.

Sarah Josepha Hale, an American writer, advocated for making Thanksgiving a national holiday.

The pilgrims would not have had potatoes, sweet potatoes, or cranberry sauce at the first Thanksgiving.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt once moved Thanksgiving up a week to boost holiday shopping during the Great Depression.

The tradition of breaking the wishbone dates back to the Etruscans and Romans.

The term "Black Friday" originally referred to financial crises in the United States.

The average number of turkeys consumed on Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. is around 46 million.

Turkeys were once worshipped by the Mayans and Aztecs.

Thanksgiving was celebrated on different dates by different states before it became a national holiday.

Wild turkeys can change the color of their head to blue, red, or white depending on their emotions.

Jingle Bells was originally written as a Thanksgiving song by James Lord Pierpont.

The first Thanksgiving was not an official holiday; it was a gathering of gratitude.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was initially called the "Macy's Christmas Parade."

Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States.

Sarah Josepha Hale also wrote the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Cranberries are grown in sandy bogs or marshes.

The Pilgrims brought beer with them on the Mayflower, and it was consumed during the first Thanksgiving.

The Butterball Turkey Talk-Line answers thousands of questions each year during the holiday season.

Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday as a way to bring the country together during the Civil War.

The idea of the Pilgrims wearing all black and white clothing is a myth.

Thanksgiving became a federal holiday in 1941.

The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade featured live animals from the Central Park Zoo.

The tradition of Thanksgiving football games began in 1876 with Yale vs. Princeton.

The turkey pardoning ceremony at the White House started in 1947.

The first NFL Thanksgiving Day game was played in 1920.

In the United States, Thanksgiving is also a major travel holiday.

The longest Thanksgiving table measured 5,226 feet and was set in Dallas, Texas, in 2011.