Thanksgiving is a widely celebrated holiday in the United States and Canada. This holiday is very special because it’s the time where friends and family come together to give thanks for peace, love, relationships, and many other great things in life.  Did you know that…….

1) Surprisingly Thanksgiving is celebrated in the Caribbean island of Grenada on October 25 to mark the U.S. invasion of the island in 1983

2) The first national Thanksgiving Proclamation was in the year 1789 and was issued by President George Washington

3) Benjamin Franklin wanted the national bird of the United States to become the turkey, but President Thomas Jefferson was totally against this idea.  In spite, Franklin named the male turkey Tom

4) The state which consumes the largest quantity of turkeys in the United States goes to California

5) The popular Macy’s Parade, which is shown on Thanksgiving Day in front of millions of Americans, was started in the 1920’s

6) The first Thanksgiving lasted an incredible 3 days!  That is a lot of turkey!

7) The cornucopia, also known as the horn of plenty, was filled with fruits and grains. The cornucopia was attributed to Amalthea, a Greek goat who broke off her horn and offered it to the Greek god, Zeus, as a sign of reverence

Turkeys do indeed have heart attacks; when the Air Force was conducting sound barrier testing, turkeys would drop dead in the fields

9) A whopping 91% of Americans eat Turkey on Thanksgiving Day!

10) Corn is one of the popular symbols of Thanksgiving and the oldest types of corn date back more than 7,000 years!

Giving thanks on Thanksgiving Day        The horn of plenty, also known as a Cornucopia

(All photos courtesy of Google)

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It doesn’t seem to be as materialistic as other holidays sometimes have become. Normally, my family gathers to watch “The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade”. Later in the day we gather at relatives homes for dinner.

In some cases Thanksgiving has been credited with coming into being in 1621. This was at first thought to be the celebration of the end of the harvest season.

Thanksgiving was often held in a haphazard fashion at different times. For example;

George Washington created the first Thanksgiving holiday in the United States on November 26,1789.

Franklin D. Roosevelt formally declared the fourth Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving. He signed this into law in 1941.

Thanksgiving is generally the busiest holiday for traveling of the year.

The Christmas holiday shopping was not supposed to kick off until at least the day after Thanksgiving.