Twenty Turkey Day Facts

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for everything and everyone you are grateful for. Everyone knows how the story of Thanksgiving Day goes. The Native Americans and Pilgrims had a huge feast for three days. So now we all gather with our families and feast while giving thanks for everything in our life. But what else is Thanksgiving about? Here are a couple little known facts that your history teacher probably didn’t tell you.

1. The traditional cornucopia was a curved goat’s horn filled to the brim with vegetables. According to Greek legend, Amalthea (a goat) broke one of her horns and offered it to Greek God Zeus as a sign of reverence. As a sign of gratitude, Zeus later set the goat’s image in the sky also known as constellation Capricorn.
2. Turkeys have heart attacks. When the Air Force was conducting test runs and breaking the sound barrier, fields of turkeys would drop to the ground because of a heart attack.
3. Fossil evidence shows that turkeys roamed America nearly ten million years ago.
4. 91% of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day.
5. 50% of Americans put the stuffing inside the turkey.
6. Benjamin Franklin wanted the national bird to be a turkey.
7. More than 40 million green bean casseroles are served on Thanksgiving.
8. 20% of all cranberries eaten are eaten on Thanksgiving Day.
9. About 45 million turkeys are sold for Thanksgiving each year in America.
10. Native Americans never ate cranberries. They used them for dying fabric and decorating pottery.
11. A turkey can run at speeds up to 20 miles per hour.
12. Sarah Josepha Hale is a magazine editor that campaigned to make Thanksgiving Day a National Holiday in 1827 and succeeded.
13. In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October.
14. The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition began in the 1920’s.
15. California consumes the largest amount of turkey in the United States.
16. Americans feast on 535 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving.
17. Only male turkeys can gobble. Female turkeys can only make a clicking noise.
18. Turkeys are known to spend the night in trees.
19. Turkeys can drown when they look up when it’s raining.
20. Pilgrims did not have buckles on their clothing, hats or shoes. Buckles didn’t come into fashion until the late 1600’s.