Here are 10 things you (probably) don’t know about Thanksgiving if you’re looking for good Thanksgiving trivia or Thanksgiving history.
10 Things You (Probably) Don’t Know About Thanksgiving
This is NOT the 400th Anniversary of the first Thanksgiving
“Thanksgivings” have been around for centuries and are not easily traceable to any one “first” event. It was not even “invented” on North American soil.
What Tad’s Turkey means
For Thanksgiving one year, Abraham Lincoln received a gift with a rather short shelf life: a turkey eventually destined for the Christmas table. His young son Tad took a liking to the bird—even nicknaming it “Jack”—and pled with his father not to send Jack to the kitchen for dressing. Lincoln agreed, and even gave Tad his word in writing: the first presidential pardoning of a turkey.
Thanksgivings were always “proclaimed”…and still are.
And, they were proclaimed for all kinds of things. As John Adams noted in his diary on July 24, 1776, Congress proclaimed “thanksgiving for the repeal of the Stamp Act.” Prior to the establishment of the annual holiday we know today, thanksgivings were often proclaimed for religious purposes, but might also be issued for battles won or destinations successfully reached. Today, our Thanksgiving is still accompanied by a presidential proclamation, though few pay it any mind.
Thanksgiving used to be on a different day each year
Depending on where you lived and what year it was, thanksgiving was a moveable feast, changing from year to year and sometimes from season to season.
Thanksgiving was not an official national holiday until World War II
Up until 1941, Thanksgiving was still, theoretically, up to the president to proclaim and for governors to follow suit. Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Congress finally established the holiday once and for all.
The idea for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment was proposed on Thanksgiving
Lewis Hayden, a former enslaved person who worked for the Massachusetts Secretary of State, along with his wife, Harriet, invited Governor John Albion Andrew to dine with them on Thanksgiving in 1862. At that dinner in Boston, Hayden proposed the idea of an all-Black regiment to fight in the Civil War. Albion helped get it done and the history-making Massachusetts 54th was born. 25 inspiring Indigenous American activist accounts to follow
The establishment of our annual November Thanksgiving owes its existence to a woman
A widowed mother of five with no formal education, Sarah Josepha Hale became one of the most influential magazine editors in 19th-century America. She wanted Thanksgiving to be codified—celebrated throughout the country on the same day, everywhere, every year. She lobbied governors, ambassadors, her readers, and several presidents to make it happen. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln granted her November wish. That Thanksgiving came just a week after Gettysburg.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt started a proclamation trend in 1939
The president’s annual proclamation of the November Thanksgiving with which we are all familiar has arrived every fall since Lincoln was in office. However, none of the presidents ever mentioned the Pilgrims in their proclamations until 1939 when FDR did just that.
For a time, Thanksgiving involved masks and candy
Sound familiar? There was a time when kids—and even some adults—would dress in costume, roam the streets, and go door to door asking strangers for candy and money on Thanksgiving. One popular costume during Thanksgiving “masking” was the “ragamuffin,” and New York City even had a ragamuffin parade. Vendors caught on and started displaying masks with candy in their stores.
Two Thanksgivings are better than one
When Thanksgiving fell on November 30 in 1939, retailers were miffed at the shortened shopping season and lobbied FDR to move the holiday—which had been celebrated on the last Thursday of November for decades—to the 23rd. FDR agreed, sending football games, holidays, and calendar printers into a frenzy. Some states celebrated on the 23rd, some stuck to the original plan, and Mississippi, Texas, and Colorado decided to celebrate both.
Thanksgiving is many things
For many people across the world, Thanksgiving is about family, food, and gratitude. And at the same time, Thanksgiving is a day that reminds some members of the Native American community and others of the atrocities that the North American continent’s original inhabitants suffered at the hands of European newcomers. Ironically, and worth remembering, some of the most longstanding and now widespread expressions of gratitude come from the Indigenous cultures themselves—a holiday reminder for us all. Next, gear up for #gratitude with 100 best Thanksgiving Instagram captions. Denise Kiernan is the author of We Gather Together: A Nation Divided, a President in Turmoil, and a Historic Campaign to Embrace Gratitude and Grace, out now.
