Funformation on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is here again. But how much do you really know about this age-old harvest festival?

Here are 10 fun facts you can bring to the table for an engaging conversation with your family this year.

Pilgrim’s Progress
While “pilgrim” generally means a long-distance traveler on a journey to a holy place, the “Pilgrims” responsible for the first Thanksgiving refer to the 120 Brownist English Dissenters who sailed from Holland to England, and then to the New World aboard The Mayflower in 1620. Amazing what just 120 people can do, right?

Men and Women in Black
According to traditional folklore, the Pilgrim men wore black breeches, white square collars, wide-buckled belts and black steeple hats. Women’s wear was restricted to black skirts, white aprons and dark capes. Wrong. In reality, the Pilgrims wore clothes of many colors, made from cloth brought from England. They weren’t all sticks in the mud.

A Harvest Festival
The traditional Thanksgiving celebrations the Pilgrims left behind in England and Holland were pious, prayerful religious festivals in which overeating and merriment would not have been tolerated (no post-meal belt loosening). What the Pilgrims celebrated in November 1621 represented a harvest festival to give thanks for surviving their first year on the edge of the New World. A little different from eating thirds nowadays.

Related: Healthier Thanksgiving Feasts

Pilgrims Invited the Indians
The first Thanksgiving was a three-day festival with delicious smells and sounds of merriment that included guns and musical instruments. There is no record of the Wampanoag Indians being invited, but they were probably drawn to the sensations, dropping by to see what new curiosities these aliens were up to. And they brought five deer to add to the feast. Can’t we all just get along?

Pumpkin Pie
Plymouth was a settlement nestled between a wild continent and the deep blue sea. So the first Thanksgiving was most likely blessed by food from both sides: wild fowl, venison, lobster, cod and dried corn (an Indian invention; corn was once just a grass). Sweeter dishes like cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie were not included, because there was no sugar or wheat flour at the time. Birds were stuffed with onions and other spices.

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War Origins
The Civil War was the catalyst that led to Thanksgiving as we know it. In 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed two days of national “Thanksgiving” — once in August to celebrate the Battle at Gettysburg, and again in November “as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

Turkey Pardon
The presidential turkey pardon is now an annual White House celebration, but that, too, started with Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, Lincoln interrupted a Cabinet meeting to write an “order of reprieve” for a turkey named Jack, a pet of his son Tad, who ran crying into the meeting when he learned of the turkey’s fate.

Related: Why Giving Thanks Makes Sense

Franksgiving
From 1939 to 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt hoped to help Depression-challenged retailers earn more money by moving Thanksgiving to the third Thursday in November. Some states complied, while states like Texas did not, and in 1941, Congress moved Thanksgiving back to the traditional fourth Thursday. The period was known as “Franksgiving” in honor (or mockery) of the president.

Feeling Sleepy
It’s true that turkey is a source of L-tryptophan, an amino acid that produces serotonin, regulating sleep cycles. But there are more likely culprits for the fatigue most of us experience — grocery shopping, meal prep, preparing for guests, and, of course, eating mass quantities of food that include mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, salad, pumpkin pie, whipped cream. And often alcohol. Thanksgiving can be tiring without the turkey at all.

Black Friday
As long as we are indulging in one of the seven deadly sins (gluttony), why not follow up with a day of lustful spending and greed? Black Friday is a fairly recent phenomenon that takes place the day after Thanksgiving, when retailers fire the starting gun for Christmas shopping. Many Americans take Friday as an additional holiday in an attempt to get a head start on holiday shopping. In 2014, Black Friday shoppers threw down $50.9 billion in sales. And let’s not even worry about Cyber Monday.