My kids are ridiculously jazzed up about Thanksgiving. I keep reminding them, “You do realize you don’t get presents on Thanksgiving, right?” Maybe it’s the anticipation of traveling to my mom’s house, or the time off school, or the turkey-shaped cake I traditionally buy at the local bakery every year. Either way, Thanksgiving can’t come soon enough.
But I’ve decided this year, in preparation for a long holiday weekend and family time around the Thanksgiving table, I would dig-up weird, odd and little-known facts about this Thanksgiving celebration. I plan to share them with my kids because it’s always nice to impress the relatives, and they’ll make great conversation starters during those uncomfortable bouts of silence at the dinner table.
So, internet sleuth that I am, here are 12 weird, strange and oddly fascinating facts about Thanksgiving:
Did you know…
✳ A spooked turkey can run at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. They can also burst into flight approaching speeds between 50-55 mph in a matter of seconds. (And based upon the fact below, this is obviously only true of wild turkeys.)
✳(This might not be one for the kids, but still sadly interesting): Because white meat is the most popular part of the bird, today’s farm-raised turkeys are bred to have huge breasts. This, ironically, makes mating impossible. Turkeys must be artificially inseminated.
✳ The Guinness Book of Records says that the heaviest dressed weight recorded for a turkey is 86 pounds. This was recorded at the annual “heaviest turkey” competition held in London, England on December 12, 1989.
✳ Sarah Josepha Hale (pictured above) is famous for her successful campaign to establish Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday. She is also famous for writing the nursery rhyme “Mary Had A Little Lamb”.
✳ There are three places in the United States that proudly hold the name of holiday’s main course: Turkey, Texas; Turkey Creek, Louisiana; and Turkey, North Carolina.
✳ The best way to check if a cranberry is ripe is to bounce it. If it bounces more than 4 inches off the ground, dig in.
✳ Thanksgiving is responsible for the creation of the TV Dinner. TV Dinners were created in 1953 when Swanson needed a solution to the problem of 260 tons of leftover turkeys. (What did they do in 1952?)
✳ There were no forks at the first Thanksgiving meal, only spoons and knives. Forks didn’t rise in popular use until the 18th Century.
✳ More than 40 million green bean casseroles are served on Thanksgiving. (I had to check that number twice. Yes, it’s true. Million.)
✳ Americans eat the equivalent of the weight of Singapore’s population in turkey each year–690 million pounds. (This suddenly makes me curious to know what America’s population weighs….)
✳ 30 percent of Americans say they’d try a pizza topped with turkey and gravy on Thanksgiving Day. (Source? Domino’s Pizza.)
✳ 242 million turkeys are expected to be raised in the United States during 2010. To put that in perspective that is one turkey for every person living in Indonesia. Even more alarming? If those 242 million turkeys formed their own nation, they’d be 4th on the population list, right behind the United States.
Happy Thanksgiving, friends! May your holiday be full in every way.
{About Molly, our Education + Learning blogger: She’s a homeschool mom of four and freelance writer that lives in a fixer-upper farmhouse in rural Maryland. You can find her at her blog Mommy Coddle or find all her favorite things at MommyCoddleLIKES. And she’s on twitter as MommyCoddle}
sources: free government information , US Census Bureau newsroom, weirdworm, wikipedia
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Sarah Josepha Hale is my ancestor!!!! =o) Just had to say that.