What is Thanksgiving, where does it come from and why is it celebrated?
Thanksgiving is celebrated in a big way in the United States, and the undoubted star of the holiday — of course, in addition to the spirit of thanksgiving and giving — is the food.
Millions of families in the U.S. will be eating turkey this Thursday. Why? Check out this and other answers here:
1. Thanksgiving tradition
Frozen foods have Thanksgiving to thank. In 1953, someone at the Swanson Company miscalculated the number of turkeys that would be needed for the holiday… by 26 tons. Someone with a business mind came up with a brilliant idea: cut up the meat from the leftover turkeys and package it with some side dishes.
2. Going shopping?
If you’re a plumber, you probably won’t be able to go on a shopping frenzy on Black Friday, which is the busiest day for plumbers all year, according to Roto-Rooter, the largest plumbing service in the US.
After all, someone has to take care of the system after well-fed guests “overload the system.”
There are four places in the U.S. called Turkey: Turkey Creek in Louisiana, Turkey in Texas, Turkey in North Carolina, Turkey Creek in Arizona. In addition, there are two towns in Pennsylvania called Upper Turkeyfoot and Lower Turkeyfoot.
When Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday, it was thanks to the tireless efforts of a magazine editor named Josepha Hale, who was also the author of the song ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’.
The sound the turkey makes is called a squawk.
If Ben Franklin had succeeded, the turkey would be America’s national bird. As he wrote to his daughter in a letter, to him an eagle had “a bad moral character.” The turkey, on the other hand, was “a more respectable bird.”
Thanksgiving is not celebrated only in the United States; Canadians also celebrate it, but in October.
Many people feel very sleepy after scarfing down Thanksgiving dinner. But it’s not the fault of the turkey, which actually contains less tryptophan, an amino acid whose digestion requires a good amount of energy. The sleepiness comes because most people overeat at dinner, and digesting all that food can make them sleepy.
Why is turkey called turkey in English? It is the same name as Turkey in English, and this is because the birds were imported by Turkish merchants.