{"id":27973,"date":"2013-11-27T00:05:16","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T08:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=27973"},"modified":"2014-11-27T05:03:05","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T13:03:05","slug":"thanksgiving-facts-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/11\/thanksgiving-facts-roundup\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving Facts Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"
For those of you in the United States who are about to celebrate Thanksgiving and want to look particularly knowledgey at your family get-together, here is a roundup of all the Thanksgiving related articles we’ve made here at TodayIFoundOut for you to peruse. Or, you know- don’t. But when there are awkward pauses in the conversation at your Thanksgiving parties, you’ll have only yourself to blame. \ud83d\ude09<\/div>\n

\"Sarah-hale\"<\/a>The Author of \u201cMary Had a Little Lamb\u201d was Largely Responsible for the Establishment of the United States\u2019 Thanksgiving Holiday and Most of What We Traditionally Eat During It<\/a><\/p>\n

Sarah Josepha Hale, one of the great women in American history, campaigned for nearly 20 years to get Thanksgiving made a national holiday.\u00a0 It previously was only celebrated, as we think of it, in New England; although, some other regions had similar events at differing times of the year and often multiple times a year. Basically, whenever something particularly good happened, it was common to have a day of thanks, usually directed to God, though most of these days little resembled what we think of as Thanksgiving.\u00a0 Often these were days for fasting and offering prayers of thanks. During her campaign, which spanned five presidents before she found one that was open to her idea in Abraham Lincoln, she continually lobbied various congressmen;… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"pilgrims\"<\/a>The Pilgrims Did Not Celebrate the First Thanksgiving in America<\/a><\/p>\n

The Pilgrims did not celebrate the first Thanksgiving in America. In fact, the particular Pilgrim event that is often cited as the first Thanksgiving wasn\u2019t even the Pilgrim\u2019s first Thanksgiving. They had several before then at various times and none of them were an annual thing. These days were simply a particular time where they had something significant to thank God about, so would set aside a day to do so. Around the time the Pilgrims came… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"jingle-bells\"<\/a>The Song \u201cJingle Bells\u201d Is Thought to Have Been Written for a Thanksgiving Sunday School Program<\/a><\/p>\n

Jingle Bells was originally called One Horse Open Sleigh and was written by James Pierpont sometime between 1853 and 1857. At the time, Pierpont was working as an organist and music director in Savannah, Georgia.\u00a0 Pierpont was hired on by his brother, John Pierpont Jr. who was the Reverend there, after James\u2019 business in San Francisco burned down.\u00a0 It was here that he composed One Horse Open Sleigh, reportedly for a Thanksgiving program. He later publicly released… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"black-friday\"<\/a>Why the Day After Thanksgiving is Called \u201cBlack Friday\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBlack Friday\u201d as a name for the day after Thanksgiving was coined by police officers in New England. One of the earliest documented references of this was in December of 1961, where Denny Griswold of Public Relations News stated: \u201cin Philadelphia, it became customary for officers to refer to the post-Thanksgiving days as Black Friday and Black Saturday. Hardly a stimulus for good business, the problem was discussed by\u2026 merchants with their Deputy City Representative\u2026 He recommended adoption of a positive approach which would convert Black Friday and Black Saturday to Big Friday and Big Saturday.\u201d (Referring to the traffic and number of accidents.) \u201cBig Friday\u201d never caught on, but over the next decade,… (more)<\/p>\n

\"lions-e1289984355554\"<\/a>How the Tradition of the Detroit Lions Playing on Thanksgiving Got Started<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1934, radio executive G.A. Richards bought the Portsmouth, Ohio Spartans NFL team, moved them to Detroit, and renamed them the Lions.\u00a0 Unfortunately for him, nobody in Detroit cared much for watching the Lions.\u00a0 Despite winning all their games but one before Thanksgiving, having several stars of the day, and one super star in Earl \u201cDutch\u201d Clark, the average turn out for each game was only around 12,000 people. At the time, it was… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"turkey-strut-e1288834018876\"<\/a>Why Turkeys Are Called Turkeys<\/a><\/p>\n

In the 16th century, when North American turkeys were first introduced en masse to Europe, there was another bird that was popularly imported throughout Europe and, most relevant to this article, England, called a guinea fowl.\u00a0 This guinea fowl was imported from Madagascar via the Ottoman Empire.\u00a0 The merchants who did this were, thus, known as \u201cturkey merchants\u201d.\u00a0 The guinea fowl themselves eventually were popularly referred to as \u201cturkey fowl\u201d, similar to how other product imported through the Ottoman Empire acquired their names, such as… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"428px-Gheorghe_Tattarescu_-_Pelerin-340x475\"<\/a>The Pilgrims Didn\u2019t Wear All Black and White Clothing with Buckled Top Hats<\/a><\/p>\n

The myth that they dressed like this stems from the popular clothing style of the day in England in the late 17th century, which carried over to 18th and 19th century depictions. Artist depictions, at that time, depicted Pilgrims having worn the same style clothing that had become the fashion in England. These depictions of the Pilgrims\u2019 clothing then endured to this day. In fact, historical records of Pilgrims\u2019 clothing, such as the passenger list of the Mayflower, wills, which included… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"trytophan-reaction-e1280395255756\"<\/a>Turkey Does Not Make You Drowsy After You Eat It<\/a><\/p>\n

Now to be clear, turkey does contain tryptophan.\u00a0 Tryptophan is an amino acid which the human body doesn\u2019t naturally produce, but is essential to proper body function and, thus, must be acquired from food.\u00a0 The reason tryptophan is tied to drowsiness is that it is used by your body to create serotonin.\u00a0 Serotonin, among other things, acts as a calming agent in the brain and plays a key role in sleep.\u00a0 So with turkey containing tryptophan, one would logically say it would make you sleepy after you eat it\u2026 except, this isn\u2019t actually the case. So, why not?\u00a0 Primarily because… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"teen-suicide-340x236\"<\/a>The Holiday Season Has the Lowest Suicide Rate of Any Time of the Year, Not the Highest<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the holiday season actually is the time of the year when there are the least amount of suicides with the lowest point being December 1st and the lowest rate of the year by month being in December. The highest suicide rates actually appear during Spring time and then peak once again during Fall. So where does this myth come from? The exact origins… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Black-friday-walmart-bfcom\"<\/a>Black Friday Is Not the Biggest Shopping Day of the Year<\/a><\/p>\n

Black Friday is not the biggest shopping day of the year. In fact, it\u2019s typically not even in the top five, though has cracked the ranks a few times in recent years. The real biggest shopping day of the year is nearly always the Saturday before Christmas, excepting a few occasions where it typically then ends up being the Thursday or Friday before Christmas, when Christmas falls on a weekend day. Thus, the procrastinators seem to… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"thanksgiving-facts\"<\/a>10 Fascinating Thanksgiving Facts<\/a><\/p>\n

Fact #1: The author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was largely responsible for the establishment of the Thanksgiving Holiday.\u00a0 Fact #2: The date of Thanksgiving was once changed to try to boost the economy.\u00a0 Fact #3: Why we eat what we eat on Thanksgiving.\u00a0 Fact #4: What was actually served at the “first” Thanksgiving.\u00a0 Fact #5: Thanksgiving holidays were once commonly celebrated throughout the year by Europeans and Americans… (more here with details<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"thanksgiving\"<\/a>10 Thanksgiving Myths Dispelled<\/a><\/p>\n

Myth #1: The Pilgrims invited the Indians to the harvest festival.\u00a0 Myth #2: The Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving in America.\u00a0 Myth #3:\u00a0 The Pilgrims celebrated Thanksgiving at the end of November.\u00a0 Myth #4: The\u2026 (details here<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those of you in the United States who are about to celebrate Thanksgiving and want to look particularly knowledgey at your family get-together, here is a roundup of all the Thanksgiving related articles we’ve made here at TodayIFoundOut for you to peruse. Or, you know- don’t. But when there are awkward pauses in the conversation at your Thanksgiving parties, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2781,646],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-i-found-out","category-featured-facts","category-most-popular"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27973"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37414,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27973\/revisions\/37414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}