Did You Know? – Thanksgiving Style!

• Lobster, rabbit, chicken, fish, squashes, beans, chestnuts, hickory nuts, onions, leeks, dried fruits, maple syrup and honey, radishes, cabbage, carrots, eggs, and goat cheese are thought to have made up the first Thanksgiving feast.

• Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States.

• Sarah Josepha Hale, author of the popular nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, worked tirelessly to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

• Abraham Lincoln officially set aside the last Thursday of November as the national day for Thanksgiving.

• Congress passed a law on December 26, 1941, to ensure that all Americans would celebrate a unified Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November every year.

• According to the Congressional Record on September 25, 1789, immediately after approving the Bill of Rights:

“Mr. [Elias] Boudinot said he could not think of letting the [congressional] session pass without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining with one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He had poured down upon them. With this view, therefore, he would move the following resolution:

‘Resolved, That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer…’

We wish all the best to you and yours this Thanksgiving. May you have a blessed and joyous celebration with your families. Here is a special Thanksgiving video explaining its rich and deep history from Col. Ronald D. Ray: