1. Tomorrow isn’t just Thanksgiving. It’s also National ‘Eat a Cranberry’ Day (check!) . . . National Espresso Day (sure, I’ll need it!) . . . National Cashew Day (uh, maybe) . . . and National Margaret Day.
(So THAT’S why Margarets feel so slighted. It’s like having a birthday on Christmas.) (???)
2. Even though the first Thanksgiving feast was in 1621 and all 13 colonies celebrated it in 1777, it wasn’t made an official national holiday until 1863.
There IS a lesser-known “first Thanksgiving” that happened two years earlier in 1619, by English settlers who’d just landed in Virginia aboard the ship “Margaret.” (That’s just an uncanny coincidence.)
The settlers documented a day of “thanksgiving” to celebrate their arrival, and vowed to recognize that thanksgiving annually. But a few years later, they were wiped out by Native Americans in the “Indian Massacre of 1622.”
3. FDR moved Thanksgiving one week EARLIER in 1939 and 1940 to try to stretch out the Christmas shopping season at the end of the Great Depression. People did NOT like the change, and it was moved back to normal in 1941.
4. The presidential turkey pardoning custom SEEMS like one of those traditions that’s been carried over for 100-plus years . . . but nope. It was first formalized by President H.W. Bush in 1989.
There have been similar one-off sentiments by a few presidents over the years, but it didn’t become an official tradition until Bush kicked it off.
5. The “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” is 99 years old. The first one in 1924 featured floats, professional bands, and LIVE animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo.
