Turkey day parade |
Thanksgiving linksButterball Turkey Talk Line-
(800) 288-8372 Butterball's Website - www.butterball.com Purdue Consumer Help- (800) 473-7383 www.perdue.com Ocean Spray Help Line- (800) 662-3263 www.oceanspray.com US Dept. of Agriculture- (888) 674-6854 www.fsis.usda.gov Online Turkey Shoot Game |
Thanksgiving facts
- The first Macy's Parade in 1924 was called the "Macy's Christmas Day Parade" although it took place on Thanksgiving Day.
- In 1927, Macy's introduces the world famous giant helium balloons. The first balloons included Felix the Cat and Toy Soldier.
- The parade has been held continuously from 1924, except for 1942-1944 when it was halted due to WWII.
- Santa Claus has ended the Macy's Parade every year except 1933, the only year in which he led the parade.
- The Snoopy balloon has appeared in the parade more often than any other character.
- In 1989, the Macy's Parade marched through its very first snowstorm.
- The parade route has only changed twice, in 1945 & 2012, from 145th Street and Convent Avenue to the modern day kick off at 77th Street and Central Park West.
- The parade’s first national broadcast was on NBC in 1948.
- Today, more than 44 million people watch the parade on TV each year and 3 million attend in person.
- In 1920, Gimbels department store in Philadelphia held a parade with about 50 people and Santa Claus bringing up the rear. The parade is now known as the 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade and is the nation’s oldest Thanksgiving Day parade.
- Thanksgiving college football games began with Yale versus Princeton in 1876.
- The Detroit Lions of the American National Football League have hosted a game every Thanksgiving Day since 1934, with the exception of 1939–44 (due to World War II).
- The Dallas Cowboys have hosted every Thanksgiving Day since 1966, with the exception of 1975 and 1977 when the then-St. Louis Cardinals hosted.
- In 1921, Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving to commemorate the harvest reaped by the Plymouth Colony after a harsh winter.
- The colonists celebrated it as a traditional English harvest feast, to which they invited the local Wampanoag Indians.
- All thirteen colonies did not, however, celebrate Thanksgiving at the same time until October 1777.
- George Washington was the first president to declare the holiday, in 1789.
- In the mid-1800's poet and editor Sarah J. Hale had begun lobbying for a national Thanksgiving holiday.
- In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln gave his Thanksgiving Proclamation, declaring the last Thursday in November a day of thanksgiving.
- Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States.
- In 1939, 1940, and 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt, seeking to lengthen the Christmas shopping season, proclaimed Thanksgiving the third Thursday in November.
- Congress passed a joint resolution in 1941 decreeing that Thanksgiving should fall on the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains today.
- Thanksgiving can occur as early as November 22 and as late as November 28.
- The Friday after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday because stores hope the busy shopping day will take them out of the red and into the black. Black Friday has been a tradition since the 1930s.
- Beginning in 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the President of the United States with one live turkey and two dressed turkeys. The live turkey is pardoned and lives out the rest of its days on a peaceful farm.
- Abraham Lincoln is said to have informally started the practice when he pardoned his son’s pet turkey.
- Turkeys sometimes spend the night in trees.
- A turkey under sixteen weeks of age is called a fryer, while a young roaster is five to seven months old.
- Turkeys are the only breed of poultry native to the Western Hemisphere.
- Turkeys have great hearing, but no external ears.
- Turkeys can see in color, and have excellent visual acuity and a wide field of vision (about 270 degrees), which makes sneaking up on them difficult.
- Domesticated turkeys cannot fly.
- Wild turkeys can fly for short distances at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. They can also reach speeds of 25 miles per hour on the ground.
- At one time, the turkey and the bald eagle were each considered as the national symbol of America.
- According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 45 million turkeys are cooked and eaten in the U.S. at Thanksgiving—that's one sixth of all turkeys sold in the U.S. each year.
- Age is a determining factor in taste. Old, large males are preferable to young toms (males) as tom meat is stringy. The opposite is true for females: old hens are tougher birds.
- Recent studies suggest that carbohydrate-rich meals may cause sleepiness by increasing the number of tryptophans in the brain.
- A 15-pound turkey typically has about 70 percent white meat and 30 percent dark meat.
- White meat has fewer calories and less fat than dark meat.
- Cranberries were actually used by Native Americans to treat arrow wounds and to dye clothes.