History

Thanksgiving 2009

In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims in Massachusetts and members of the Wampanoag Tribe held a 3-day feast to celebrate the harvest, an event many regard as the nation's first Thanksgiving. It became a national holiday in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving. In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed that Thanksgiving should always be celebrated on the fourth Thursday - and never the fifth Thursday - of the month in order to encourage earlier holiday shopping.

Holiday-Related Facts

• In 2008, American farms raised 271 million turkeys. Altogether, they weighed 7.9 billion pounds and were valued at $4.5 billion.
• The average American will consume 13.9 pounds of turkey annually. No doubt, a large portion will be eaten during the Thanksgiving and December holidays.
• The United States imported $9.2 million worth of live turkeys between January and July 2009. Of these imports, 99.3 percent came from Canada. When it comes to sweet potatoes, however, the Dominican Republic was the source of 60.7 percent of total imports.
• Where will you spend Thanksgiving? Perhaps it will include a visit to Turkey, TX, Cranberry, PA, or Mayflower, AR.
• Many Thanksgiving feasts would not be complete without green bean casserole. If your table includes this dish, thank Wisconsin's farmers. Wisconsin led all states, producing 320,200 tons of green beans in 2008.

Featured Photograph

Every year since 1947, the National Turkey Federation presents a turkey to the president during a White House Turkey Ceremony. This year's turkey likely originated in Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, or Virginia, as these states combined produce more than half of the nation's turkeys in 2009.