Some things you may not have known about Thanksgiving

As with all tradition there is a lot of history behind them, some of which are pretty common knowledge and others that have been forgotten over time. These historical facts aren’t always boring either. In fact most of them can be downright strange and in some cases outright bizarre.

Our big November turkey day holiday is no different so I thought it would be fun to share some of the more interesting facts about Thanksgiving.

It all started from the same person who gave us “Mary had a little lamb” – Thanksgiving hasn’t always been a national holiday but in fact only came into being in 1863 due to the campaign started by a magazine editor named Sarah Josepha Hale. Her other claim to fame was the nursery rhyme we all curse our kids with as they are growing up.

The entire population of Singapore – According to the National Turkey Foundation in 2007 Americans ate over 690 million pounds of turkey. Which makes it equal to the population of Singapore

And Columbus named the turkey that because he thought it was a peacock – Not always good with directions Columbus thought that when he discovered America he thought he was in India. As a result when he saw the turkey he named it “tuka” which is the Indian word for peacock.

Food is a drug – As stressful as Thanksgiving can be we are actually helped out by the food we eat to make that stress melt away. Stuffing is rich in vitamin B1, nuts have lots of magnesium, and the turkey contains tryptophan. Mix altogether and can say you have a real happy meal.

It’s party time – the original Thanksgiving dinner’s that saw the pilgrims and Wampanoag tribesmen getting down was typically three-days of dancing, singing and with a few games thrown in for good measure.

The birth of TV dinners – we can thank the presence of TV dinners on Thanksgiving. Back in 1953 when the first TV dinners were made it was because Swanson needed to do something with the 260 tons of frozen turkeys they had left over after Thanksgiving.

Houston, I think we need some turkey – The first meal on the moon was a foil packed roast turkey dinner along with all the trimmings.

That is one big bird – the largest turkey ever served up for a Thanksgiving dinner was one recorded to weigh in at 86 pounds.