Thanksgiving Trivia

This Thanksgiving holiday, learn some history and enjoy some trivia.  Whether you’re with family, celebrating Friendsgiving, or on your own, may you have a happy, healthy, and fun long weekend!

Trivia Questions:

1. In what year was the first Thanksgiving originally celebrated?
2. William Bradford, the leader of the Plymouth Colony of Massachusetts, wrote a book that is regarded as the most authoritative account of the Pilgrims and the early years of the colony which they founded. What is the book’s title?
3. Which U.S. president first declared Thanksgiving a federal holiday (to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November)?
4. What was Marcus L. Urann‘s original profession, the man who first came up with the concept of canned cranberry sauce?
5. Which U.S. president issued the first national Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, “…That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation…”?
6. One of our Founding Fathers thought the turkey should have been named the national bird of the United States, not the Continental Congress’ choice of the bald eagle.  Who was it?
7. Who was the first U.S. president to pardon (and not eat) the traditional White House Thanksgiving Day turkey?
8. One U.S. president refused to acknowledge and declare Thanksgiving as a national holiday?  Who was it and why?

Answers:

1. 1621. In November 1621, the settlers’ first corn harvest proved successful and Governor William Bradford invited the Plymouth colonists’ Native American allies to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Members of the Wampanoag tribe came bearing food to share. But at what expense? After the pilgrims arrived, years of conflict took place between European settlers and the Wampanoag people, which resulted in the deaths of millions of native people. The only reason the pilgrims could even settle in Plymouth was because the Wampanoag people had been devastated by disease, virtually wiped out by a plague European settlers had brought years before. Today, some people across the country commemorate a “National Day of Mourning” to remember that, while European settlers escaped persecution in their own country, their arrival also heralded unspeakable loss for native people which still continues to this day.
2. Of Plymouth Plantation, or History of Plymouth Plantation. Originally published in 1651, Bradford wrote a detailed history in journal form about the founding of the Plymouth Colony and the lives of the colonists from 1621 to 1646. This version of the title is available in the University Libraries’ catalog.
3. Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln designated the last Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving. However, in 1939, after a request from the National Retail Dry Goods Association, President Franklin Roosevelt decreed that the holiday should always be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month (and never the occasional fifth, as occurred in 1939) in order to extend the holiday shopping season by a week. The decision sparked great controversy, and was still unresolved two years later. In 1941, Congress ruled that the fourth Thursday in November be observed as Thanksgiving Day and a federal legal holiday.
4. Attorney. At the turn of the 20th century, he left his legal career to buy a cranberry bog. Years after canned cranberry sauce had become mainstream, he said of the innovation, “I felt I could do something for New England. You know, everything in life is what you do for others.”
5. George Washington. As a nation, the United States has celebrated Thanksgiving off and on since 1774. In 1789 George Washington made a proclamation that the American people should celebrate a day of thanksgiving to God on November 26th.
6. Benjamin Franklin. In a letter to his daughter sent in 1784, Benjamin Franklin suggested that the wild turkey would be a more appropriate national symbol for the newly independent United States than the bald eagle. He argued that the turkey was “a much more respectable Bird,” “a true original Native of America,” and “though a little vain and silly, a Bird of Courage.”
7. George H. W. Bush. The United States president traditionally receives a turkey in a ceremony at the White House a few days before Thanksgiving Day, a custom started by President Harry S. Truman.  In 1989 George H. W. Bush pardoned the turkey after he noticed that the 50-pound bird at his official Thanksgiving proclamation looked a little antsy.
8. Thomas Jefferson, separation of church and state. Presidents originally had to declare Thanksgiving a holiday every year. However, Thomas Jefferson refused to endorse the tradition, because he strongly believed in the separation of church and state. Since Thanksgiving involved prayer and reflection, the president thought making it a national holiday would violate the First Amendment. He also thought it was better suited as a state holiday, not a federal one. His aversion to mixing church and state earned him a reputation as America’s only anti-Thanksgiving president.

Sources: https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/14/us/thanksgiving-day-fast-facts/index.html; https://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-quiz; https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/thanksgiving-ideas/a35457/thanksgiving-trivia/

This post, originally drafted by Susan Zullinger in 2019, underwent minor edits in 2023 by Sabrina Sondhi.