Twenty questions on what actually happened in 1621, how Thanksgiving became a national holiday, and the traditions that grew up around it, from the Macy's parade to the turkey pardon.
Congress fixed the fourth Thursday in a 1941 law. It falls between November 22 and 28.
Question 2
Which president proclaimed Thanksgiving a national annual holiday in 1863?
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Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln's proclamation set the last Thursday of November. Washington had proclaimed a one-time day of thanksgiving in 1789.
Question 3
Which magazine editor campaigned for 17 years to make Thanksgiving a national holiday?
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Sarah Josepha Hale
Hale, editor of Godey's Lady's Book, wrote to five presidents. She also wrote "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
Question 4
Which ship brought the Pilgrims to America in 1620?
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The Mayflower
The Speedwell set out with the Mayflower but leaked and turned back. The Mayflower arrived in November 1620.
Question 5
Which Native American people joined the Pilgrims at the harvest celebration of 1621?
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The Wampanoag
About 90 Wampanoag men came with their leader. They outnumbered the roughly 50 surviving colonists.
Question 6
Who was the Wampanoag leader at the 1621 harvest feast?
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Massasoit (Ousamequin)
Massasoit, whose personal name was Ousamequin, had made a treaty with the colonists that spring. His son Metacom later led King Philip's War.
Question 7
Where did the Pilgrims found their colony?
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Plymouth
Plymouth Colony is in present-day Massachusetts. Jamestown, in Virginia, was founded earlier, in 1607.
Question 8
Which president moved Thanksgiving a week earlier in 1939, a change nicknamed "Franksgiving"?
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
Roosevelt wanted a longer shopping season during the Depression. The confusion led Congress to set the fourth Thursday in 1941.
Question 9
When is Thanksgiving celebrated in Canada?
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The second Monday of October
Canada's Parliament fixed the second Monday of October in 1957.
Question 10
In which year was the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade held?
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1924
The first parade had live animals from the Central Park Zoo. The giant balloons arrived in 1927.
Question 11
Which two NFL teams host a game on Thanksgiving almost every year?
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Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys
The Lions have hosted since 1934, apart from a break during World War II, and the Cowboys since 1966, apart from 1975 and 1977. A third game was added in 2006.
Question 12
Under which president did the White House turkey "pardon" become a formal yearly tradition?
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George H. W. Bush, in 1989
Turkeys were given to presidents for decades before, and some were spared, but Bush began the official annual pardon.
Question 13
What is a male turkey called?
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A tom
Adult males are toms or gobblers; a young male is a jake. Females are hens and chicks are poults.
Question 14
Which state raises the most turkeys?
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Minnesota
Minnesota leads US turkey production, followed by North Carolina and Arkansas in most recent USDA counts.
Question 15
What is the fleshy flap that hangs over a turkey's beak called?
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The snood
The snood hangs from the forehead over the beak. The wattle is the flap of skin under the chin.
Question 16
Which of these foods was almost certainly NOT served at the 1621 harvest feast?
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Pumpkin pie
The colonists had no ovens for baking pies and almost no sugar. Edward Winslow's letter mentions fowl and deer.
Question 17
According to Edward Winslow's account, how many deer did the Wampanoag bring to the 1621 celebration?
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Five
Winslow wrote that Massasoit's men "went out and killed five deer," which they gave to the colonists' leaders.
Question 18
Which Patuxet man, who spoke English, helped the Pilgrims plant corn?
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Tisquantum (Squanto)
He had been kidnapped and taken to Europe years earlier. Samoset, an Abenaki man, was the first to greet the colonists in English.
Question 19
How long did the 1621 harvest celebration last, according to Winslow?
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Three days
Winslow's letter describes the two groups eating and holding recreations "for three days."
Question 20
Which of these fruits is native to North America and harvested by flooding bogs?
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Cranberry
Wet-harvested cranberries float, so growers flood the bog and gather them from the surface. Wisconsin grows the most.
Key numbers
Questions
20
Format
Multiple choice, 4 options
Explanations
Every question
Answers
Hidden until you open them
What the sources say about 1621
Most of what we know about the first harvest feast comes from one letter by colonist Edward Winslow. He described about 90 Wampanoag men arriving with their leader, Massasoit, five deer, fowl, and three days of eating and games. There's no record of pumpkin pie, which the colonists had no ovens or sugar to make. Several questions here are built on that letter so they rest on a primary source, not on later legend.
How it became a national holiday
Thanksgiving didn't become a yearly national holiday until 1863, after a 17-year letter-writing campaign by magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale. Then came Roosevelt's 1939 date change, nicknamed "Franksgiving," and the 1941 law fixing the fourth Thursday.
Modern traditions
The parade, the football games in Detroit and Dallas, and the presidential turkey pardon all have their own histories. They're easy questions for a family table and a way to keep the kids involved between courses.
For a family table, read the questions between courses and let the youngest players answer the turkey and parade questions first.
For the full story, read the real history of Thanksgiving. Where the Wampanoag leaders' own names are recorded, we give them alongside the names the colonists used.
Questions people ask
What's a good Thanksgiving trivia question for the dinner table?
Which food was almost certainly not at the 1621 feast: pumpkin pie. The colonists had no ovens for pies and almost no sugar. Most people guess turkey instead.
Who made Thanksgiving a national holiday?
Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it as an annual national holiday in 1863, after years of campaigning by Sarah Josepha Hale. Congress fixed the fourth Thursday in 1941.
Are these Thanksgiving questions accurate to the history?
We based the 1621 questions on Edward Winslow's letter, the main eyewitness account, and the later history on government and museum sources listed below.