15 Random Thanksgiving Facts

1. A spooked turkey can run up to speeds of 20mph and also burst into flight around 50-55mph in a matter of seconds.

2. Fossil evidence shows turkeys roamed the Americas 10 million years ago.

3. The pumpkin name originated from the Greek word “pepon” which means “large melon.” The French changed it to “pompon” which was later changed to “pumpion” by the English and then the American Colonists changed it to “pumpkin.”

4. Americans eat roughly 535 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving.

5. Cranberries used to be known as “crane berry” because its pink blossoms and drooping head reminded the Pilgrims of cranes.

6. Turkeys were one of the first animals in the Americas to be domesticated.

7. In colonial times, pumpkins were used as part of the crust instead of the filling.

8. The world’s largest pumpkin pie weighed 3,699 pounds in 2010.

9. In 1941, Congress declared Thanksgiving as a national holiday and to be on the 4th Thursday in November.

10. Since 1975 every year on the island of Alcatraz “Unthanksgiving Day” is held to commemorate the survival of Native Americans after the American Colonists settled.

11. Thanksgiving football games began with Yale vs. Princeton in 1876.

12. The Friday after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday mainly because stores hope the busy shopping day will take them out of the red and into black - positive profit. Black Friday has been a tradition since the 1930s.

13. Now a Thanksgiving dinner staple, cranberries were originally used to treat arrow wounds and dye fabric by the Native Americans.

14. Turkeys can have heart attacks. When the Air Force conducted test runs to break the sound barrier, fields of turkeys would drop dead.

15. 50% of Americans put the stuffing inside the turkey.

 

- April -