Thanksgiving is so much more than an annual holiday dedicated to fighting with your parents over delicious helpings of various carbs. Before your food coma sets in, I am here to get you up to speed with answers to everything you ever wanted to know about Turkey Day!
By the middle of the 19th century most states began to follow the tradition and in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln denoted the last Thursday of November as the national holiday. President Franklin D. Roosevelt later moved it up a week to encourage shopping during the Great Depression.
And we’ve always eaten turkey? Well, fowl would have been part of the menu, though no official records exist of what exactly the pilgrims ate at the historic gathering. But given what they were hunting in the area, turkey is very likely.
About how many turkeys do we eat a year? Forty-six million, according to an estimate from the National Turkey Foundation.
Who do I thank for green bean casserole? Campbell’s. The soup company created the recipe about 50 years ago. Today, they sell about $20 million worth of cream of mushroom soup annually.
And finally my favorite! Where does football come in? Football on Thanksgiving actually dates back to 1876 when the American Intercollegiate Football Association help its first championship game.
Be thankful for what you have and you will end up having more. Happy Thanksgiving!