Today, America will celebrate their annual Thanksgiving holiday, a custom that is said to have been initiated by a feast shared by a group of early settlers and Native Americans. Here in the UK we tend to be a little clueless on the finer details of these celebrations, so we thought it would be a great idea to share some fun facts about the day with you!
The Annual Turkey Pardon
Every year since 1989, the president of the USA is presented with two turkeys, one of which will be saved from the dinner table by being officially 'pardoned'. Read more about this strange tradition here.
Forks Wouldn't Have Been Used at the First Thanksgiving Feast
The now commonplace eating utensil wouldn't have been present at the first Thanksgiving feast, simply due to the fact that it wasn't invented until 10 years later, and didn't become popular for another 200 years!
They Probably Didn't Have Turkey Either...
While Turkey has become a firm staple of the modern Thanksgiving dinner, evidence suggests that the famous feast which inspired the holiday would have more likely consisted of passenger pigeon and seafood!
Speaking of Which, Americans Eat A LOT of Turkey!
The rough figure is around 46 million of the unlucky birds, more than double those eaten at Christmas!
Black Friday Origins
The day of deals and crazy shoppers was apparently named after it's ability to get business owners 'out of the red' and into positive profits.
There are Actually Two Thanksgivings
Canada celebrate their version on the second Monday in October!
Jingle Bells Was Originally Intended For Thanksgiving!
The famous tune was originally written for Thanksgiving and not Christmas, but was so popular that it kept being played into December and soon caught on as a popular Christmas song.
What do you call a Male Turkey?
Believe it or not, this isn't intended as a joke. Only male turkeys make the recognizable 'gobble' sound, which is why they are referred to as 'Gobblers'.
690 Million Pounds of Turkey?
We've told you how many Turkeys the US consumes each year, but apparently this is how much meat was consumed at it's height - that's roughly the same weight as the population of Singapore!
Arnie Loves Thanksgiving!
We'll leave you with some, errr, 'words of wisdom' from our favourite action star. Schwarzenegger was one quoted as saying 'I love Thanksgiving turkey. It's the only time in Los Angeles that you see natural breasts'. And on that note...
