Fun facts for 400 years of Thanksgiving

The first Thanksgiving was believed to be 400 years ago, November 1621, and it was the celebration of the autumn harvest between the newly arrived Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians at Plymouth.

The foods eaten at the first Thanksgiving weren’t anything like the foods enjoyed now. The table would’ve been set with vegetables, fruits, fish and shellfish like mussels, lobster, bass, clams and oysters. 

New York was the first of several states to adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday in 1817. Every state celebrated it differently and in the south it was a largely unfamiliar tradition. 

George Washington gave the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the United States’ national government in 1789. He hoped Americans would express their gratitude for the conclusion of the war and their independence. 

In 1863, in the middle of the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation urging all Americans to ask God to treat people who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers with tender care and to heal the nation’s wounds. So, he scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November.

The first Macy’s Day Parade was actually a “Macy’s Christmas Parade” on Nov. 27, 1924, and three years later, Felix the Cat was the first giant balloon to be a part of the Macy’s Day Parade.

Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in 1939 to try and spur retail sales during the Great Depression. The moving of this holiday received fervent opposition and the president signed a bill in 1941 to officially make Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.

Since 1966, Dallas has played on every Thanksgiving with the exception to 1975 and 1977. However, the Lions were the first to start the tradition of Thanksgiving Day NFL football in 1934 against the Chicago Bears. 26,000 tickets for the game was sold out two weeks in advance.

In 2020, Zoom removed their 40-minute limit on free calls across the globe for the day, allowing families to connect to one another digitally since most didn’t leave home due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.