Thanksgiving: 10 surprising facts you probably didn’t know!

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to reunite with our loved ones, including friends and family, sharing the most delicious dishes and showing how grateful we are for the positive things in our life, however there’s more to the holiday than you might think, so here are some interesting facts you probably did not know.

The official holiday was only made official after a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale lobbied congress from 1827 to 1863, hoping to make Thanksgiving “permanently, an American custom and institution.”

Americans used to celebrate Thanksgiving in October, however president Lincoln changed the date to coincide with the date the Pilgrims landed the Mayflower in New England. Canadians, on the other side, still celebrate the holiday on the second Monday in October.

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“Jingle Bells“ was originally a Thanksgiving song and it was first named ‘The One Horse Open Sleigh,’ so feel free to listen to the famous song before Christmas.

The Macy‘s Thanksgiving Day Parade is one of the most important events of the holiday, known for featuring gigantic balloons, but during the first Parade, it featured animals from the Central Park Zoo, including elephants.

Did you also know 50 million pumpkin pies are eaten on Thanksgiving, and about 46 million turkeys are cooked for the holiday each year? Americans have even said that they enjoy Thanksgiving leftovers more than the actual meal.

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There is also no proof that the colonists and Native Americans ate turkey at their feast, and it’s important to remember that this date also commemorates the indigenous genocide after the arrival of the English settlers.