In celebration of Thanksgiving next Thursday, we would like to invite you to test your knowledge of Thanksgiving Day facts.
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
- The Pilgrims introduced the Thanksgiving Day tradition in the United States.
- The poem Over the River and Through the Wood, by Lydia Marie Child, captured the tradition of people gathering for the Thanksgiving holiday.
- Sarah Josepha Hale is credited for the creation of the modern Thanksgiving holiday.
- At the first Thanksgiving, Pilgrims served pumpkins, turkey, corn and squash.
- President Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863.
Use the comments section below to indicate your choice. We’ll post the answer next week.
5 Comments
My answer to the Thanksgiving quiz is that all of the questions are True. My google searches did tell me though that corn was pretty dried out by Thanksgiving..but they did have cornMEAL. So, I let that one go!
I think all five statements are true, though
I associate “Over the River . . .” more with
Christmas.
1) True
2) True. The poem mentions Thanksgiving.
3) True.
4) True. “ther was great store of wild Turkies”
(William Bradford)
5) True.
1. The pilgrims did have a thanksgiving or harvest feast in 1621. This was not the first or only such celebration by early colonists. The Thanksgiving tradition has grown with the country, George Washington proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving, but it was Lincoln’s proclamation that really stuck.
2. True
3. True. SJH was a New Hampshire native, author of the song, “Mary had a little lamb”, editor of Godey’s Ladies Book, and prolific writer. She wrote multiple letters to President Lincoln, governors and congressmen to persuade them to declare an official Thanksgiving Day. You can purchase a bobblehead doll to put on your Thanksgiving table from the New Hampshire Hisotrical Society.
4. True. They also had venison, other fowl, and seafood. They did not have pie, potatoes, yams or cranberries! Or jello!
5. True. Lincoln proclaimed the 4th Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving Day. During FDR’s presidency, he was persuaded to change the date in order to increase the shopping season between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This was met with wide disapproval from most Americans, who called the new date “Franksgiving”. FDR subsequently changed the date back.
1. False, historically speaking. According to a detailed history recounted in the piece on Thanksgiving by James W. Baker in Encyclopedia of American Holidays and National Days (Len Travers, ed.)the first Thanksgiving did not exist in the popular imagination before 1841, when it was described by Rev. Alexander Young in his Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers. The American Thanksgiving holiday, according to Baker, evolved out of English Calvinist practices independently of Pilgrims and harvest festivals, and, before the Civil War, was thought of as an early winter not a fall event.
2. [I'm skipping this; it's late on Friday.]
3. True — if “creation” means lobbying for a national holiday recognized by the US government.
4. [I'm skipping this, but would hesitate to say this is true.]
5. Partially true. Sarah Josepha Hale did not consider Lincoln’s declaration to be have the same legal status as other federal holidays. Thanksgiving did not become a legal federal holiday on the fourth Thursday in Nov. until Congress passed a law in Nov. 1941.