Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from everyone at HCCU! Here are some fun tidbits about Thanksgiving that you may not know....

• The first Thanksgiving was held in the autumn of 1621.
• Thanksgiving is always the fourth Thursday in November.
•  Turkey was not on the menu at the first Thanksgiving.
• The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 15 pounds. Seventy percent white meat and thirty percent dark meat.
• According to the National Turkey Federation, 88% of Americans surveyed eat turkey on Thanksgiving.
• The heaviest turkey on record weighs 86 pounds.
• Female turkeys (called hens) do not gobble. Only male turkeys goggle.
• Wild turkeys can run 20 miles per hour when they are scared.
• A turkey under sixteen weeks of age is called a fryer, while a young roaster is five to seven months old.
• Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird, not the eagle.
• Each year, the president of  the U.S. pardons a turkey and spares it from being eaten for Thanksgiving dinner. The first one started in 1947 with President Truman.
• The NFL started the Thanksgiving Classic games in 1920 and since then the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys have hosted games on Turkey Day.  In 2006, a third game was added with different teams hosting.
• The first Turkey Trot was run in 1896 in Buffalo, New York.
• The Dallas Turkey Trot is the largest Thanksgiving race in the United States.
• Turkey Bowling is an event that takes place annually in Cincinnati’s Fountain Square ice skating rink. Contestants use a frozen turkey to knock down pins by sliding it across the ice.
• Thanksgiving is the reason for TV dinners. In 1953 Swanson had so much extra turkey (260 tons) that a salesman told them they should package it onto aluminum trays with other sides like sweet potatoes - - and the first TV dinner was born!
• The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade began in 1924. No large balloons were at this parade, only live animals from Central Park Zoo.
• Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, where it is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season.

So on the fourth Thursday in November, families across the U.S. gather to feast on turkey, watch football and gear up for Christmas by looking for Santa at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and looking at  the store ads for Black Friday Shopping  in the local newspaper.