At a 1929 farmhouse Thanksgiving, a huge shadow darkens the room by the window as a boy presses his hands to the glass, the father stares out with his carving knife and fork, and the grandmother keeps pouring gravy over the edge of the boat.

Thanksgiving Trivia Questions

Until 1932, what did Macy's do with its giant balloons after the parade?Jump to this question ↓

Here's our list of 177 Thanksgiving trivia questions, from the Pilgrims and the first feast to the Macy's parade, football, turkeys and some weird traditions. Most of them are quite challenging, and I'd be shocked if you didn't learn something new about Thanksgiving by the end. Younger players can skip to the kids section near the bottom.

History of Thanksgiving trivia questions

Easy3

1. What year was the celebration that is most commonly considered to be the first Thanksgiving?

Reveal answer

1621

This is the celebration that people most often talk about when they are talking about the “first” Thanksgiving. But there are others that are claimed to be the first Thanksgiving. There was another celebration in Plymouth in 1623 and one in Boston in 1631 that people claim was the actual first Thanksgiving. In reality there were lots of Thanksgiving celebrations in North America before 1621 as well, because days of Thanksgiving were often celebrated after good events that were deemed to have the hand of God behind them.

Sources (2)

2. Under which president did Thanksgiving become an annual holiday?

Reveal answer

Abraham Lincoln

As a nation, the US has celebrated Thanksgiving off and on since 1777, when the Continental Congress called the first national day of thanksgiving. In 1789 George Washington made a proclamation that the American people should celebrate a day of thanksgiving to God on November 26th. Some presidents after him continued the tradition, sporadically declaring days of Thanksgiving. But it wasn’t until 1863 with Lincoln proclaiming a day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November that it became an annual holiday. Presidents proclaimed one every year after that, usually on the last Thursday of November. In 1939 Franklin D. Roosevelt moved it up a week to give stores a longer Christmas shopping season, and the country had two Thanksgivings until Congress stepped in. In 1941 Congress made the fourth Thursday of November the law.

Sources (3)

3. On Thanksgiving in 1789, George Washington donated money for food and what alcoholic drink for prisoners jailed for debt in New York City?

Reveal answer

Beer

The record says it plainly: money for “provisions & beer” for the people locked up for debt in the city jail. He also went to services at St. Paul's Chapel that day.

Sources (3)

Medium15

4. How long did the first Thanksgiving celebration last?

Reveal answer

3 days

It was celebrated much earlier than our current celebration, sometime between late September and early November 1621. About 50 English colonists and around 90 Wampanoag men attended the 3-day feast, so the guests outnumbered the Pilgrims almost two to one.

Sources (2)

5. When the religious group that would later be known as the Pilgrims left England to practice their religion freely, where did they go?

Reveal answer

Holland (first Amsterdam, then Leiden)

Unlike the Puritans, the Pilgrims believed that they couldn’t practice their religion within the English state church. This led to fines and sometimes imprisonment. To escape persecution, they fled to Holland, first to Amsterdam in 1608 and then to Leiden in 1609. But they had a hard time fitting in and finding jobs because they didn’t want to assimilate into the local culture. They were also worried about their children being influenced by the culture they were living in. So they secured investors and made their journey to found a colony in New England.

Right, we are moving to Leiden, Holland!
Sources (2)

6. Lincoln's famous November Thanksgiving of 1863 wasn't his first that year. He had already set aside August 6th as a day of national thanksgiving after which Union victory?

Reveal answer

Gettysburg (accept Vicksburg)

Two national Thanksgivings in one year. The first fell on Thursday, August 6th, after the Union victory at Gettysburg. The October proclamation that set a November date came later, so the Thanksgiving we remember was Lincoln's second of 1863.

Sources (2)

7. How many times does Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation mention the Pilgrims?

Reveal answer

Not once

It thanks God for “fruitful fields and healthful skies.” The document most people would name as the start of the national holiday leaves Plymouth's settlers out entirely.

Sources (2)

8. Sarah Josepha Hale campaigned for a national Thanksgiving. Which nursery rhyme is she also credited with writing?

Reveal answer

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Thomas Edison recited it for the first recording on his phonograph in 1877, though that recording wasn't saved. Hale published the poem in 1830, and people still argue over whether she really wrote it.

Sources (6)

9. Asked in 1808 to call a national day of fasting and prayer, which president said no, because the Constitution kept the federal government out of religion?

Reveal answer

Thomas Jefferson

He wrote that the government was “interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions,” and he never declared a thanksgiving day as president. John Adams and James Madison both did.

Sources (5)

10. The Continental Congress's 1777 Thanksgiving celebrated an American victory at which New York battlefield?

Reveal answer

Saratoga

The first national thanksgiving proclamation was a victory celebration. After British General John Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga in October 1777, the Continental Congress set aside December 18th to give thanks.

Sources (3)

11. Roosevelt signed the law fixing Thanksgiving's date on the day after which holiday?

Reveal answer

Christmas

He signed it on December 26th, 1941. Two years earlier he had moved Thanksgiving up a week to give stores a longer Christmas shopping season, and 16 states refused to go along, so for three years the country had two Thanksgivings. Congress stepped in to end the mess. The House proposed November's last Thursday, but the Senate changed “last” to “fourth” to account for years with five Thursdays.

Sources (3)

12. In 1956, which state held Thanksgiving a week after the federal holiday, sticking with November's last Thursday?

Reveal answer

Texas

November had five Thursdays that year, and Texas was the lone holdout observing the last one. A state law passed in 1957 brought it onto the fourth-Thursday schedule starting in 1958.

Sources (3)

13. Under the fourth-Thursday rule, what's the latest possible November date for Thanksgiving?

Reveal answer

November 28th

The first Thursday can fall as late as November 7th. Add three weeks and you reach the 28th. A Thanksgiving on November 30th, as happened in 1933, can't happen under the current rule.

Sources (2)

14. Which Florida city hosted a Spanish thanksgiving service and meal with local Native Americans in 1565, decades before Plymouth's feast?

Reveal answer

St. Augustine

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and about 800 Spanish soldiers, sailors and settlers came ashore, held a Mass of Thanksgiving, then laid out a meal and invited the local Seloy people. That was about 55 years before the Pilgrims reached Plymouth.

Sources (3)

15. In July 1861, the Confederacy called a day of thanksgiving across the South. Which Confederate victory was it celebrating?

Reveal answer

The First Battle of Bull Run (accept First Manassas)

Both sides of the Civil War thanked God for their wins. PBS dates the South's celebration to Sunday, July 28th, 1861.

Sources (3)

16. Norman Rockwell said painting the Thanksgiving turkey in Freedom from Want was one of the few times he'd ever done what?

Reveal answer

Eaten the model (accept ate his subject)

Rockwell said it was the family's own Thanksgiving turkey. In his words, “Mrs. Wheaton, our cook (and the woman holding the turkey), cooked it, I painted it, and we ate it.”

Sources (3)

17. Before the Civil War, many Southerners resisted Thanksgiving. They saw it as a Northern holiday tied to what cause?

Reveal answer

Abolition (accept the anti-slavery movement or ending slavery)

To many Southerners it was a Northern, abolitionist holiday (PBS NewsHour). Even Virginia sat it out. Sarah Josepha Hale wrote that Governor Henry Wise doubted he had the official authority to appoint a Thanksgiving.

Sources (3)

18. After Kennedy's 1962 Thanksgiving proclamation credited the Pilgrims, a senator complained. Kennedy's 1963 proclamation named early thanksgivings in Massachusetts and which other state?

Reveal answer

Virginia

The complaint came from a Virginia senator. Virginia's claim goes back to settlers whose London Company charter required them to keep their day of arrival as a day of thanksgiving to God.

The 1963 text spoke of "our forefathers in Virginia and in Massachusetts," which gave both states a share without deciding who came first.

Sources (3)

Hard2

19. Lincoln issued the October 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation, but which member of his Cabinet actually wrote it?

Reveal answer

William H. Seward

Lincoln signed it, but the words came from his secretary of state. Sarah Josepha Hale, the magazine editor pushing for a national Thanksgiving, had written to Seward too, calling him her friend and asking him to take it up with the president.

Sources (4)

20. In 1841, a Boston minister reprinting an eyewitness account of the 1621 harvest feast became the first known writer to call it “the first Thanksgiving.” Where in the book did he put that phrase?

Reveal answer

In a footnote (accept a note at the bottom of the page)

The earliest known use of the name for the 1621 meal is a footnote, about 220 years after the fact. Alexander Young's note read, “This was the first Thanksgiving, the great festival of New England.”

Sources (4)

Pilgrims and Wampanoag trivia questions

Easy4

21. What crop did the Pilgrims take from a Native underground storage pit on Cape Cod to use as seed?

Reveal answer

Corn

Bradford and Winslow recorded an intention to repay the owners, but the taking was theft. On a later expedition, some colonists also disturbed Native graves and took possessions from unoccupied summer homes.

Sources (2)

22. What did Squanto tell the Pilgrims to put in the ground with their corn to help it grow?

Reveal answer

Fish (accept herring)

Wampanoag farmers already used herring caught as they traveled up the rivers to fertilize their planting land. Squanto passed that knowledge on. Bradford recorded his warning that the corn in those old grounds needed it.

Sources (1)

23. Plymouth was built on Patuxet, a Wampanoag village. What had emptied it before the Pilgrims arrived?

Reveal answer

An epidemic

About 2,000 people had lived there, and nearly all died. Tisquantum is the only survivor known by name.

Sources (3)

24. Which sacred book's first complete printing in the Americas was in a Native language of New England rather than English?

Reveal answer

The Bible

The complete edition appeared in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1663. John Eliot translated it into Massachuset, or its Natick dialect, depending on the source. The New Testament had been printed separately two years earlier.

Sources (2)

Medium10

25. The familiar Pilgrim look, complete with hats and shoe buckles, owes much to artists from which later historical era?

Reveal answer

The Victorian era (accept 19th-century artists or illustrators)

The buckles and tall black hats aren't historical, and neither is all the black. Everyday clothes came in many colors, with brown, brick red, yellow and blue common; the black in old pictures was often people's best clothes.

Sources (3)

26. Weeks before reaching Plymouth, the Mayflower passengers first went ashore on which Massachusetts peninsula?

Reveal answer

Cape Cod

They came ashore around today's Provincetown and spent about a month looking for a place to settle before Plymouth.

Sources (3)

27. A baby born aboard the Mayflower after it reached New England was named Peregrine. What does his name mean?

Reveal answer

Traveler (accept pilgrim or someone from far away)

Peregrine White was born while the ship sat at anchor in Provincetown Harbor. He wasn't even the first Mayflower baby: Elizabeth Hopkins had already given birth during the crossing, to a boy named Oceanus.

Sources (3)

28. Roughly what fraction of the Mayflower passengers died during their first winter at Plymouth?

Reveal answer

About half

At the worst point, Bradford wrote that only six or seven people were well enough to care for the others. They worked day and night, risking their own health. He named William Brewster and military commander Myles Standish among them.

Sources (2)

29. Samoset, an Abenaki leader from Monhegan Island in Maine, walked into Plymouth alone in March 1621 and greeted the Pilgrims in English. Who had he picked it up from?

Reveal answer

English fishermen (accept fishing crews)

He'd learned “some broken English” from the English crews who came to fish off Monhegan. He also asked for beer, which he'd tasted before and liked.

Sources (2)

30. The Pilgrims called the Wampanoag leader “Massasoit,” but that wasn't his name. What kind of word was it?

Reveal answer

A title (accept rank, or grand sachem or chief)

His given name was Ousamequin. Massasoit was what the English called the grand sachem, the intertribal chief of the Wampanoag.

Sources (3)

31. Before helping the Pilgrims, Squanto was kidnapped by an English captain and sold into slavery in which European country?

Reveal answer

Spain

Captain Thomas Hunt took him and other Wampanoag men and boys in 1614. When Squanto returned home in 1619, nearly everyone in his village had died in a pandemic. He found deserted homes and overgrown cornfields.

Sources (3)

32. In 1970, Wampanoag speaker Frank James was told his speech for the Pilgrims' 350th anniversary was too inflammatory, so he gave it on a hill in Plymouth instead. What yearly Thanksgiving gathering grew out of that?

Reveal answer

The National Day of Mourning

He spoke on Cole's Hill, overlooking Plymouth Rock, on Thanksgiving Day. Since 1970, Indigenous people and their allies have gathered there at noon every Thanksgiving.

Sources (2)

33. The Pilgrims’ own accounts of their landing never mention it. It only became famous in 1741, when a 94-year-old man spoke up about it as a wharf was planned over it. What is it?

Reveal answer

Plymouth Rock

Bradford and Mourt’s Relation both just say the Pilgrims landed. The rock’s fame rests on Thomas Faunce, who was 94 by one count when he spoke up, and on a story passed down by word of mouth.

Sources (2)

34. Which William Bradford manuscript, rediscovered in the Bishop of London's library, was returned to Massachusetts in 1897?

Reveal answer

Of Plimoth Plantation

It was last seen in the library of Boston's Old South Church, and British soldiers probably carried it off during the Revolution. It surfaced again in the 1850s, and getting it back took a long campaign.

People sometimes call it the log of the Mayflower, but Bradford started writing it long after the Pilgrims landed.

Sources (2)

Hard6

35. Where can you see the original signed Mayflower Compact today?

Reveal answer

Nowhere; the original is lost

All we have is William Bradford's handwritten copy of the wording. Even the name came later: nobody called the 1620 agreement the Mayflower Compact until 1793.

Sources (4)

36. How many adult English women survived the first winter and probably oversaw cooking for at least 140 people at the harvest celebration?

Reveal answer

Four

Eighteen adult married women sailed on the Mayflower, and four lived through the winter: Elizabeth Hopkins, Elinor Billington, Mary Brewster and Susanna Winslow. Teenagers, children and servants probably pitched in.

Sources (2)

37. The Mayflower's church members called themselves “Saints.” What did they call the other passengers?

Reveal answer

Strangers

The church members weren't the whole ship, and everyone else got lumped together as Strangers. By the early 1800s at least, “Pilgrim” had become the popular label for all the passengers.

Sources (3)

38. According to Pilgrim Edward Winslow, Ousamequin (Massasoit) once sent messengers to Plymouth with his own knife, to cut off a man's head and hands and bring them back. Whose?

Reveal answer

Tisquantum (Squanto)

Ousamequin claimed authority over him and demanded his return under their 1621 treaty. Governor Bradford's reluctance to hand him over caused a rupture, and Tisquantum died of illness in 1622 before it went further.

Sources (2)

39. Which neighboring Native nation pressured Wampanoag leader Ousamequin to pay tribute, making an alliance with Plymouth potentially useful?

Reveal answer

The Narragansett

The epidemic had devastated the Wampanoag while the Narragansett largely escaped it. Ousamequin and his council faced an imbalance of power, and an alliance with the English may have looked like the better option.

Sources (3)

40. Metacom, the Wampanoag leader the English called King Philip, was killed in 1676. For about how long did Plymouth keep his head on display?

Reveal answer

About 20 to 25 years (accept two decades or more)

His death effectively ended King Philip's War, and a day of thanksgiving was declared to celebrate it. His head went up on a pole in the middle of Plymouth, and it stayed there while his son lived in slavery in the West Indies.

Sources (4)

Thanksgiving parades trivia

Easy2

41. How do both Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and America’s Thanksgiving Parade conclude?

Reveal answer

With the arrival of Santa Claus

In America’s Thanksgiving Parade this usually features Santa receiving the key to the city from the Mayor of Detroit. This is supposed to herald in the Christmas season, but as we all know it’s been creeping earlier and earlier each year.

Sources (3)

42. Which tire company built Macy's parade balloons from the late 1920s until 1980?

Reveal answer

Goodyear

Think blimps. Goodyear's experience with lighter-than-air craft carried over, and it made more than 100 Macy's balloons, including Superman, Mickey Mouse and Snoopy.

Sources (3)

Medium15

43. In what decade did both the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and America’s Thanksgiving Parade start?

Reveal answer

The 1920s (specifically 1924)

America’s Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit was started by Hudson’s department store. Its display manager, Charles Wendel, borrowed the giant papier-mâché heads from European carnivals, and the first ones were imported from Italy. Macy’s parade in New York started the same year, run by store employees, many of them immigrants who wanted a parade like the ones back home. It was first called the Macy’s Christmas Parade, and it had animals from the Central Park Zoo.

Sources (4)

44. Macy's parade turned 100 in 2024, but the 2026 parade is only the 100th one. What caused the gap?

Reveal answer

World War II (accept the parade being canceled from 1942 to 1944)

There was no parade in 1942, 1943 or 1944, so the 2024 centennial was only the 98th parade.

Sources (4)

45. In 1942, New York's mayor stabbed a giant Macy's dragon balloon so its material could be donated as what?

Reveal answer

Scrap rubber

The dragon and six other giant balloons went onto the government's rubber scrap heap in a ceremony on the steps of City Hall. The newspaper headline: “Mayor Plays Role of Dragon Slayer.”

Sources (3)

46. Macy's says puppeteer Tony Sarg came up with its giant parade balloons by turning what upside down?

Reveal answer

Marionettes (accept string puppets or puppets)

Macy's says Sarg did it in the 1920s. Same puppetry, much bigger puppets.

Sources (4)

47. Which cartoon cat became Macy's first character balloon in 1927?

Reveal answer

Felix the Cat

He was propped up with sticks back then. For the 100th parade, Macy's planned to bring him back with six poles supporting him from below, a nod to that 1927 debut.

Sources (4)

48. When wind grounded every Macy's parade balloon in 1971, what footage did TV stations show instead?

Reveal answer

The previous year's parade

Through the 2025 parade, 1971 remained the only year when wind kept every balloon grounded.

Sources (3)

49. Which Dr. Seuss character's balloon hit a lamppost during Macy's 1997 parade, sending part of the lamppost into the crowd?

Reveal answer

The Cat in the Hat

The balloon stood six stories tall, and winds reached as high as 43 miles an hour. Four spectators were hurt when the balloon struck the lamppost and its top part fell into the crowd; two were hospitalized with severe head injuries.

Sources (2)

50. Before Macy's parade, what do crews do to overhead traffic lights to clear a path for the balloons?

Reveal answer

Turn them toward the sidewalk (accept turn them sideways or swing them out of the way)

In 2024, the production team said they turned two and a half miles of lights overnight. The balloons need a clear route all the way down to 34th Street.

Sources (2)

51. Macy's floats are prepared in a New Jersey warehouse and squeezed through the Lincoln Tunnel to the parade. In 2024, what was done to more than 20 floats so they would fit?

Reveal answer

“Decapitated” (accept collapsed, folded down or had their tops taken off)

The floats are engineered to come apart for the trip, then put back together at the starting line in Manhattan. Over 20 of them lost their heads on the way in, at least for the morning.

Sources (2)

52. In Macy's 2020 pandemic parade, what replaced the usual teams of balloon handlers?

Reveal answer

Specialized vehicles

A giant balloon would normally have around 80 to 100 handlers. For that parade, the balloons were tethered to vehicles instead.

Sources (3)

53. Macy's first parade marched roughly six miles to Herald Square from which Manhattan neighborhood?

Reveal answer

Harlem

The procession started at 145th Street. The 2025 route covered about two and a half miles, less than half as far.

Sources (3)

54. In Detroit's Thanksgiving parade, business and community leaders donate money for the chance to dress as what?

Reveal answer

Clowns

They're called the Distinguished Clown Corps. Each one donates for the chance to trade a business suit for a clown suit and march down Woodward Avenue, and more than 2,000 people have done it over 40-plus years.

Sources (2)

55. Detroit's parade owns more than 300 giant papier-mâché “Big Heads,” including Michigan heroes. Rocker Bob Seger is one. Which civil-rights icon is another?

Reveal answer

Rosa Parks

Volunteers in the Big Head Corps pay for the privilege of wearing one on parade day: $250 a head in 2023.

Sources (3)

56. A supposed sea serpent on Nantucket in 1937 was a hoax by Macy's parade designer Tony Sarg. What was it really?

Reveal answer

A giant balloon

The creature was made from rubber and canvas. Macy's 2026 tribute to Sarg lists a character called Morton the Nantucket Sea Monster among his creations.

Sources (3)

57. Until 1932, what did Macy's do with its giant balloons after the parade?

Reveal answer

Let them go (accept released them into the sky)

Each one carried a return address and a reward for whoever brought it back. One came down in the East River, and another drifted out to sea. It ended in 1932, when a student pilot over Queens flew straight at the Tom-Cat balloon. It wrapped around her wing and sent the plane into a tailspin, until her instructor took the controls.

Sources (2)

Hard1

58. Philadelphia’s Thanksgiving parade is usually called the oldest in the country. What department store started it?

Reveal answer

Gimbels

Yes, the same Gimbels that Macy’s feuds with in Miracle on 34th Street, and that rivalry was real. According to a history of the store, the first parade was about 50 people in 15 cars, with Santa riding in the last one. Gimbels dated it to 1920, four years before Macy’s, though the city’s newspapers show no sign of it before 1925. Later the big finish was Santa, played by a firefighter, climbing a ladder into the store’s eighth-floor toy department. Gimbels closed in 1986, and the parade carries on as the 6abc Dunkin’ Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Sources (5)

Turkey trivia questions

Easy5

59. Where on a turkey's head are the small openings it uses to hear?

Reveal answer

Behind its eyes

No ear flaps at all, just small holes, yet turkeys hear very well. And with eyes on the sides of the head, they can see about 270 degrees around them.

Sources (3)

60. A turkey's bristly “beard” looks like hair, but what is it made of?

Reveal answer

Modified feathers

It grows from the chest, which is an unusual place for something called a beard. Some female wild turkeys grow one too, though estimates of how many vary between sources.

Sources (3)

61. Which amino acid in turkey gets blamed for the Thanksgiving nap, even though turkey alone doesn't explain the sleepiness?

Reveal answer

Tryptophan

It isn't unique to turkey; plenty of other protein has it too. The carbohydrate-heavy Thanksgiving meal is a more likely explanation for the droop.

Sources (1)

62. Which brand started a Turkey Talk-Line in 1981 with six home economists answering holiday cooking questions?

Reveal answer

Butterball

That first season, the six of them fielded about 11,000 questions. That's more than 1,800 worried cooks each.

Sources (3)

63. Wild turkeys sometimes chase and peck at people who act scared of them. Wildlife officials say the bird has put that person low in its what?

Reveal answer

Pecking order (accept dominance hierarchy)

Wild turkeys live in flocks ranked by pecking order, and people who act fearful get treated as subordinates. The turkey has decided you report to it.

Sources (1)

Medium10

64. Which president was the first to formally give a turkey a presidential pardon?

Reveal answer

George H. W. Bush

John F. Kennedy was the first president on record to spare a Thanksgiving turkey, in 1963, when he said, “We’ll just let this one grow.” Ronald Reagan was the first president to use the word pardon, in 1987, but only as a joke while reporters were asking him about pardons in the Iran-Contra scandal. Bush made it official in 1989, and every president since has carried on the tradition. And no, it wasn’t Harry Truman. The Truman Library found no record of him pardoning a turkey, and he told reporters his turkeys were headed for the dinner table.

Sources (3)

65. What are turkey chicks called?

Reveal answer

Poults

Sadly, not turkeylings, which would be an amazing name for baby turkeys. Female turkeys are called hens, and males are called toms or gobblers. The teenagers get their own names too. A young male is a jake and a young female is a jenny.

Sources (2)

66. What is the wobbly red piece of flesh on top of the beak of a turkey?

Reveal answer

A snood

The red bit of flesh under the beak is called a wattle. We are definitely not helping the turkey’s reputation as a silly animal with all these names.

Turkey - Thanksgiving Trivia Questions
Sources (2)

67. What are most turkey feathers used for after the turkey is plucked?

Reveal answer

Animal feed

Feathers from birds like turkeys and chickens are cooked under steam and pressure, then ground up and used as protein in animal feed, mostly for cattle and other ruminants. Feathers are made of keratin, a tough protein animals can’t get much out of until the steam breaks it down. And there are plenty to go around. By one USDA estimate, the U.S. poultry industry produces about 4 billion pounds of feathers a year.

Sources (3)

68. What state raises the most turkeys?

Reveal answer

Minnesota

Minnesota raised 33.5 million turkeys in 2025, and the USDA expects about 34 million in 2026. Next up is North Carolina with 28 million, then Arkansas with 21.5 million. But North Carolina grows bigger birds. In 2025 it produced about 1.09 billion pounds of turkey to Minnesota’s 972 million.

Sources (2)

69. The story goes that Abraham Lincoln spared a turkey named Jack, long before the official White House pardons. Who talked him into it?

Reveal answer

His son Tad (accept his son)

And Jack wasn't even a Thanksgiving turkey. He was meant for Christmas dinner, until young Tad stepped in.

Sources (3)

70. Ben Franklin never proposed the turkey as the national bird. So where did he call it “a much more respectable Bird” than the eagle?

Reveal answer

In a private letter to his daughter (accept a letter)

He was griping about the eagle on a medal from the Society of the Cincinnati, a club of Continental Army veterans. He also called the turkey “a true original Native of America,” but he never took the idea public.

Sources (2)

71. Wild turkeys aren't the grounded birds people picture. In a short burst, up to about how fast can one fly?

Reveal answer

About 55 miles per hour (accept 50 to 55 mph)

The burst doesn't last: a wild turkey can fly strongly for only about a quarter of a mile. On the ground they can run at around 20 to 25 miles an hour.

Sources (5)

72. What cosmetic advantage do white feathers give a commercial turkey after it's plucked?

Reveal answer

No dark pigment spots

Broad-breasted commercial turkeys are bred white on purpose. Dark feathers would leave dark pigment spots in the plucked skin, and the bird has to look good on the platter.

Sources (2)

73. In Turkey, the country, the bird we call a turkey is named after yet another country. Which one?

Reveal answer

India (it's called hindi)

Neither name tells you where the bird came from: domestication probably began in pre-Columbian Mexico, and why English says “turkey” is still debated.

Sources (6)

Hard4

74. The tame turkeys English colonists brought to America were European birds. In which present-day country were their ancestors probably first domesticated?

Reveal answer

Mexico

So the colonists were bringing American birds back to America. The Spanish took turkeys home around 1519, and from Spain they spread across Europe and reached England.

Sources (4)

75. Before the American bird acquired it, the English name “turkey” was used for which African bird?

Reveal answer

Guinea fowl

When the American bird caught on in England, the old name moved over to it. Why the guinea fowl got the name in the first place is less certain; the usual story about Turkish trade routes is disputed.

Sources (3)

76. Before Disneyland took over in 2005, pardoned turkeys retired to which Virginia park with an unfortunate cooking-related name?

Reveal answer

Frying Pan Farm Park

The birds had gone there for 15 years. When Marshmallow and Yam were sent to Disneyland instead, President George W. Bush joked that they were skeptical about the old destination's name. Understandable.

Sources (3)

77. President Harding's 1921 Thanksgiving turkey flew part of the way to Washington on a mailplane, wearing a custom flying suit and goggles. Why did it finish the trip by train?

Reveal answer

It got airsick

The bird was a gift from the Harding Girls' Club of Chicago, and it wore a knitted sweater, helmet and goggles for the flight, according to the Baltimore Sun. Flying was still a novelty for most Americans, and apparently for turkeys too.

Sources (2)

Thanksgiving food trivia questions

Easy7

78. What meat did the Native Americans bring to the first Thanksgiving?

Reveal answer

Deer (venison)

After they arrived, some of the Native Americans went out hunting and brought back five deer to give to the governor, the captain, and others.

Sources (2)

79. Ruth Siems received a plaque and a $125 bonus for helping develop which boxed stuffing brand?

Reveal answer

Stove Top

She was a home economist at General Foods and was listed first among the four inventors on the patent. That's a lot of Thanksgiving tables for $125.

Sources (2)

80. A failed batch of burgers, ground with wild rice and cranberries, helped inspire which vegetarian Thanksgiving roast?

Reveal answer

Tofurky

Oregon food maker Seth Tibbott thought the mixture tasted like Thanksgiving dinner. In 1995 his company teamed up with a Portland caterer to make the first Feast.

Sources (2)

81. Packages of the orange vegetables commonly sold as “yams” in the US must also identify them as what?

Reveal answer

Sweet potatoes

Most American supermarket yams are sweet potatoes. Louisiana researchers helped popularize the yam name through a national marketing campaign in the 1930s.

Sources (2)

82. On a 1985 shuttle flight that included Thanksgiving, a Mexican crew member introduced a crumb-free food that's been an astronaut favorite ever since. What was it?

Reveal answer

Tortillas

NASA says regular bread makes crumbs and tortillas don’t. Rodolfo Neri Vela brought tortillas aboard Atlantis, where the holiday menu also had shrimp cocktail, irradiated turkey and cranberry sauce.

Sources (2)

83. According to the Library of Congress, the first documented recipe for mashed sweet potatoes baked under a candy topping appeared in a 1917 promotional booklet. Which candy was it selling?

Reveal answer

Marshmallows

The marketers hired a recipe writer to get home cooks using marshmallows as an everyday ingredient. Mashed sweet potatoes baked under them made the booklet.

Sources (3)

84. FDA guidance permits certain sweet, golden-fleshed squash to be canned and labeled as which Thanksgiving pie ingredient?

Reveal answer

Pumpkin

The policy describes firm-shelled varieties and mixtures with field pumpkin. The FDA says it has advised canners since 1938 that this use of the pumpkin name alone wouldn't trigger regulatory action.

Sources (2)

Medium9

85. What decade was the green bean casserole, a Thanksgiving staple in many households, first created?

Reveal answer

1950s (specifically 1955)

The green bean casserole was created by the Campbell Soup Company and more specifically by Dorcas Reilly. Her original recipe card was donated to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2002.

Sources (3)

86. In what century did pumpkin pie as we know it, a custard filling baked in a crust, first show up in an American cookbook?

Reveal answer

The 18th century (1796)

Although the pumpkin is native to North America, pumpkin pies were being baked in England in the 1600s. Those were very different, though. They were slices of pumpkin, sometimes fried, layered with apples, sugar and spices between two crusts. The custard version showed up in 1796 in Amelia Simmons’s American Cookery, the first cookbook written by an American and published in America. She called it “pompkin pudding,” even though it was baked in a crust.

Sources (2)

87. What culture produced the idea of the cornucopia, the horn of plenty?

Reveal answer

Greek culture

The cornucopia is very prevalent in Greek mythology. With one origin story having baby Zeus breaking off a horn from a divine goat that was suckling him. Another origin story has Heracles ripping off the horn of a river god named Achelous. The cornucopia then became associated with several Greek and Roman deities.

A cornucopia of Thanksgiving trivia questions!
Sources (2)

88. After a weedkiller scare hit cranberries before Thanksgiving in 1959, what did the White House serve instead of cranberry sauce?

Reveal answer

Applesauce

Samples from Oregon and Washington had turned up traces of a weedkiller linked to thyroid cancer in lab rats, and cranberry sales collapsed.

Not everyone backed away. Richard Nixon ate four helpings of cranberries in public to support the growers, and John F. Kennedy downed two cranberry-juice cocktails the same day. The papers later reported that fruit from the same batch Nixon ate from tested positive.

Sources (4)

89. Massachusetts is the state people picture, but it comes second. Which state grows most of America's cranberries?

Reveal answer

Wisconsin

It grows about 60 percent of the US crop, to Massachusetts's 25 percent or so. New Jersey and Oregon follow.

Sources (3)

90. Which state produced more pumpkins in 2025 than the next four leading states combined?

Reveal answer

Illinois

Its harvest came to about 533 million pounds. Two large processing plants are in Morton and Princeville. Libby's calls Morton the pumpkin capital of the world.

Sources (2)

91. Long before turducken, cooks made a roast called a cokyntryce by bolting a bird to what farm animal?

Reveal answer

A pig

Another recipe went further: 16 birds stuffed one inside the next, all finally crammed into a great bustard. There's no record of anyone actually making that one.

Sources (2)

92. Scientists in which US government department developed dehydration technology for instant mashed potatoes?

Reveal answer

The Department of Agriculture

The work took place at its Eastern Regional Research Center. In 2007, the American Chemical Society recognized that work as a National Historic Chemical Landmark.

Sources (2)

93. Swanson’s TV dinner story starts with tons of frozen turkeys it couldn’t sell, but complete frozen meals already existed by the mid-1940s. Where were those meant to be reheated?

Reveal answer

Airplanes

Maxson's "Strato-Plates" were complete meals heated up on the plane. Swanson did coin the phrase TV Dinner, but the story crediting its salesman Gerry Thomas with inventing it is now disputed.

Sources (2)

Hard2

94. In the spring of 1621, Squanto went fishing and came back with a haul he caught without a hook, net or spear. He trod them out with his feet and grabbed them with his hands. What slippery fish were they?

Reveal answer

Eels

The Pilgrims wrote it down in Mourt’s Relation: he came home “with as many as he could well lift in one hand,” and they were “fat and sweet.” Eels were a regular Wampanoag food. In the same December 1621 letter that describes the first Thanksgiving, Edward Winslow bragged that in September they could catch a hogshead (a big barrel) of eels in a night. You won’t find many eels on a Thanksgiving table today, though.

Sources (3)

95. Which pungent condiment goes into the cranberry relish Susan Stamberg shared with NPR listeners for decades?

Reveal answer

Horseradish

The recipe also includes raw cranberries, onion, sour cream and sugar. Stamberg called it her mother-in-law's recipe, then learned its source was a 1959 New York Times clipping by Craig Claiborne.

Sources (2)

Thanksgiving football and sports trivia

Easy4

96. What nickname stuck to the 2012 Thanksgiving play when Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez ran into his own lineman's backside and lost the ball?

Reveal answer

The Butt Fumble

New England returned the loose ball for a touchdown. The Patriots scored 35 points in that second quarter despite possessing the ball for only two minutes and 14 seconds.

Sources (3)

97. The Cowboys' Thanksgiving halftime show launches the Red Kettle Campaign for which charity?

Reveal answer

The Salvation Army

The first Red Kettle Kickoff was in 1997. Performers have included Reba McEntire, Destiny's Child, Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson.

Sources (2)

98. How did Chicago win the first Thanksgiving NFL overtime game in 1980 without running an offensive play in overtime?

Reveal answer

A kickoff-return touchdown

Vince Evans had tied the game with a touchdown as regulation time expired. Dave Williams then returned the overtime kickoff 95 yards, giving the Bears a 23-17 win over Detroit.

Sources (3)

99. Before their 1989 Thanksgiving game, Dallas coach Jimmy Johnson accused the Eagles of putting a price on two of his players. What did the press nickname the game?

Reveal answer

The Bounty Bowl

Johnson said the Eagles had a $500 bounty on quarterback Troy Aikman and $200 on kicker Luis Zendejas. Eagles coach Buddy Ryan denied it. Philadelphia won 27-0.

Sources (2)

Medium7

100. Lions owner George Richards started the Thanksgiving game in 1934 as a marketing trick for his new team. What else did he own that let him put the game on 94 stations nationwide?

Reveal answer

A radio station (WJR in Detroit)

WJR was an NBC affiliate, so his game went out across the network. The trick worked: the Lions lost, but tickets sold out and more than 26,000 fans packed the stadium.

Sources (3)

101. On Thanksgiving 1962, one team's defense sacked Packers quarterback Bart Starr 11 times and handed Green Bay its only loss of the season. Which team?

Reveal answer

The Detroit Lions

Detroit went up 26-0 before Green Bay made it 26-14. The game went down as the Thanksgiving Day Massacre.

Sources (2)

102. After the disputed 1998 Thanksgiving overtime coin toss, the NFL changed when the visiting captain makes the heads-or-tails call. When does it have to come now?

Reveal answer

Before the coin is flipped

Referee Phil Luckett ruled that Jerome Bettis had said heads first; Bettis described trying to change his call. Detroit won on a field goal. The league changed the calling procedure immediately.

Sources (2)

103. Thanksgiving hero Clint Longley was later traded after punching which Cowboys quarterback, the same man he'd replaced in the 1974 comeback?

Reveal answer

Roger Staubach

Longley took over with Dallas trailing Washington 16-3 and threw the winning 50-yard touchdown to Drew Pearson. Two years later, he sucker punched the quarterback at training camp and was traded.

Sources (2)

104. On Thanksgiving 1929, the Chicago Cardinals beat the Bears 40-6. How many of the Cardinals' 40 points did Ernie Nevers score?

Reveal answer

All 40

Six touchdowns and four extra points. It's still the NFL record for points in a single game, and his teammates didn't put a point on the board.

Sources (3)

105. Buffalo's Thanksgiving Day race started in 1896 with six runners. It's a year older than which famous marathon?

Reveal answer

The Boston Marathon

Buffalo's Turkey Trot calls itself the oldest continuously run footrace. Boston's marathon was first held in 1897.

Sources (3)

106. Which rookie receiver caught only three passes on Thanksgiving 1998, turning all three into touchdowns against Dallas?

Reveal answer

Randy Moss

Those catches covered 163 yards in Minnesota's 46-36 win. Dallas had passed on him in the draft, choosing defensive end Greg Ellis instead.

Sources (2)

Hard5

107. Which Cowboys defender touched a blocked field goal in the snowy 1993 Thanksgiving game, allowing Miami to recover and get another kick?

Reveal answer

Leon Lett

Dallas was already celebrating when he went for the loose ball. He knocked it forward, Miami recovered, and the next field goal gave the Dolphins a 16-14 win.

Sources (2)

108. To give more Cowboys linemen a share of his Thanksgiving prize, John Madden wished for a turkey with how many legs?

Reveal answer

Six

A Texas barbecue owner took the comment seriously and made one. Madden's food-prize tradition had begun in 1989, when he gave Eagles defensive end Reggie White a turkey leg.

Sources (3)

109. As of 2026, which NFL team has never played a game on Thanksgiving Day?

Reveal answer

The Jacksonville Jaguars

They joined the league in 1995, and more than 30 seasons later they’re still waiting. The 2026 Thanksgiving schedule doesn’t include them either.

Sources (3)

110. Which two universities' Thanksgiving football rivalry drew such crowds that churches moved services earlier to accommodate the fans?

Reveal answer

Princeton and Yale

About 40,000 spectators attended their 1893 game. Pastors didn't want to preach to empty pews. The schools later moved the rivalry to Saturday, partly because Yale faculty objected to students playing on a holiday.

Sources (3)

111. In 2002 FOX started handing out a Thanksgiving trophy called the Galloping Gobbler. According to FOX, which star left the very first one in his locker room, from where it ended up in a dumpster?

Reveal answer

Emmitt Smith

FOX says it was later rescued from the dumpster. Other accounts go further and have Smith throwing it in the trash himself, unimpressed by how tacky it was.

Sources (1)

Thanksgiving movies, TV and songs trivia

Easy4

112. Which 1947 Christmas movie filmed its Santa riding in the actual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, with real crowds?

Reveal answer

Miracle on 34th Street

Edmund Gwenn rode as Santa during the real parade on November 28th, 1946, while the filmmakers captured scenes for the following year's release.

Sources (3)

113. Which actor played a Rachel-hating dinner guest on Friends while married to Jennifer Aniston in real life?

Reveal answer

Brad Pitt

His character, Will Colbert, appeared in the 2001 Thanksgiving episode “The One with the Rumor.” Playing someone who hated his then-wife's character earned Pitt an Emmy nomination for guest acting.

Sources (3)

114. What meat does Rachel accidentally put in her Thanksgiving trifle on Friends?

Reveal answer

Beef

She combines the dessert recipe with a shepherd's pie recipe from the neighboring cookbook page. Peas and onions make it in too. That's a lot for cream and ladyfingers to overcome.

Sources (2)

115. What repeatedly spoken word pushed the Thanksgiving comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles into an R rating?

Reveal answer

The F-word

One exchange between Steve Martin and Edie McClurg did the damage. Reports differ on the exact number of repetitions, but agree about the result: an R rating, reportedly up from PG-13.

Sources (2)

Medium9

116. What offense landed Arlo Guthrie in trouble in the Thanksgiving story behind “Alice's Restaurant”?

Reveal answer

Littering (accept illegal dumping)

Guthrie and his friend were fined a combined $50 and had to pick up the garbage in the snow. When the story became a movie, the actual arresting officer played himself. He wanted to set the record straight.

Sources (3)

117. In the original Thanksgiving poem beginning “Over the river, and through the wood,” whose house are the children visiting?

Reveal answer

Their grandfather's

The familiar grandmother wasn't the destination in Lydia Maria Child's original poem. Published in 1844, it drew on childhood visits to her grandfather. A lot of us have been sending that sleigh to the wrong grandparent.

Sources (2)

118. Which show about a man and robots mocking bad movies first aired on Thanksgiving Day in 1988?

Reveal answer

Mystery Science Theater 3000

It started on KTMA in the Twin Cities on November 24th, 1988. The first movie up for the treatment was Invaders from the Deep.

Sources (3)

119. Which Christopher Guest comedy helped inspire NBC to put the National Dog Show on Thanksgiving television?

Reveal answer

Best in Show

An NBC executive watched the comedy and saw an opportunity for an actual dog show between the parade and football. The Thanksgiving broadcast began in 2002.

Sources (3)

120. In “A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving” on Gilmore Girls, how many Thanksgiving dinners do Lorelai and Rory attend?

Reveal answer

Four

All four meals fit into one chaotic November day. One stop is the Kims' house, where Lorelai has to eat tofurkey. Most people have enough trouble making room for seconds.

Sources (2)

121. In "The Thanksgiving Song," Adam Sandler sings, "Can't believe the Mets traded Darryl Strawberry." How did Strawberry really leave the Mets?

Reveal answer

As a free agent

Sandler got it wrong. Strawberry became a free agent after the 1990 season and signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Sources (3)

122. Eli Roth's 2023 slasher Thanksgiving grew out of a fake trailer he made for which Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez double feature?

Reveal answer

Grindhouse

Sixteen years later the joke trailer became a real movie, set in Plymouth, Massachusetts, with a killer in a mask of John Carver, the Pilgrims' first governor.

Sources (3)

123. In A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, the meal includes toast, popcorn, pretzel sticks and what candy?

Reveal answer

Jelly beans

Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Woodstock and Linus put together the feast, which also includes sundaes. It's a Thanksgiving menu that makes a lot more sense if you let the kids do the planning.

Sources (3)

124. In Addams Family Values, which historical figure is Wednesday assigned to play in her summer camp's Thanksgiving musical?

Reveal answer

Pocahontas

Screenwriter Paul Rudnick says nobody has ever asked him why kids at a summer camp are celebrating Thanksgiving at all. Fair question. Wednesday refuses the part at first.

Sources (3)

Hard6

125. “We Gather Together,” often sung at Thanksgiving, originally celebrated which country's victory over Spain?

Reveal answer

The Netherlands

The hymn began with a Dutch victory at the Battle of Turnhout in 1597. It was originally set to a Dutch folk tune.

Sources (2)

126. Which classic holiday movie lost its NBC Thanksgiving time slot to the National Dog Show in 2002?

Reveal answer

It's a Wonderful Life

NBC's Thanksgiving airing had been getting consistently low ratings, so the network tried the dog show in its place.

Sources (3)

127. Which sitcom gave us the Thanksgiving line, “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly”?

Reveal answer

WKRP in Cincinnati

“Turkeys Away” was based on a real radio-station stunt with live turkeys. The sitcom just upgraded it to a helicopter.

Sources (3)

128. In which 1997 film does teenager Wendy Hood turn Thanksgiving grace into remarks about napalm, materialism and stolen tribal land?

Reveal answer

The Ice Storm

Benjamin Hood cuts her off before she gets any further. The film is set over Thanksgiving weekend in 1973, and the two neighboring families spend the holiday on affairs and self-indulgence.

Sources (2)

129. Lisa Simpson's Thanksgiving poem includes the line "My soul carved in slices! By spiky-haired demons." Which famous Beat poem does it echo?

Reveal answer

Howl (Allen Ginsberg)

The spiky-haired demon is Bart, who has just wrecked the centerpiece Lisa made for the Thanksgiving table. A BBC episode guide calls her poem very close to Allen Ginsberg's Howl. Bart ends up running away from home over it.

Sources (2)

130. Which CBS documentary about the people picking America's fruits and vegetables was deliberately aired just after Thanksgiving in 1960?

Reveal answer

Harvest of Shame

Viewers who had just finished a holiday feast got to meet the people who picked the food. CBS chose the day after Thanksgiving to get the most impact out of that.

Sources (2)

Funny and weird Thanksgiving trivia

Easy6

131. Texas has a place called Turkey. What dessert completes the name of New Mexico's “___ Town”?

Reveal answer

Pie

You could build a whole meal from a map. The Census Bureau also lists Cranberry, Pennsylvania; Corn, Oklahoma; and Pumpkin Center, North Carolina.

Sources (2)

132. What does plumbing company Roto-Rooter call the day after Thanksgiving, using a different color from the shopping holiday?

Reveal answer

Brown Friday

In 2025, Roto-Rooter said the day after Thanksgiving brings a 50% spike in service calls.

Sources (2)

133. Which dance named after Thanksgiving's bird was condemned by the Vatican and banned at the Naval Academy in 1913?

Reveal answer

The Turkey Trot

This was the dance, not the footrace. The Library of Congress describes a Cincinnati archbishop warning that people who danced it could not obtain forgiveness for their sins. That's a fairly strong dance review.

Sources (2)

134. Food editor Dale Curry joked about burning down two houses after publishing a Thanksgiving recipe. How was the turkey cooked?

Reveal answer

Deep-fried

Her 1984 Times-Picayune story was an early printed account of the technique. Looking back, Curry said she'd omitted one detail: don't cook near the house.

Sources (2)

135. In 2005, Papa John's ranked which November night behind only New Year's Eve, the Super Bowl and Halloween for delivery orders?

Reveal answer

Thanksgiving Eve

Domino's also reported a roughly 50% sales increase that night. Apparently preparing for a huge home-cooked meal can involve ordering pizza.

Sources (2)

136. The National Turkey Federation usually brings two birds to the White House pardon. What job does the second one have?

Reveal answer

Backup (accept alternate)

President Bush joked that the backup bird, Pecan, was being kept at an "undisclosed location" just in case "the main act chickens out." Both birds are spared, but only one gets the ceremony.

Sources (3)

Medium6

137. What animal sent to Calvin Coolidge for Thanksgiving dinner became his family's pet Rebecca instead?

Reveal answer

A raccoon

Someone in Mississippi sent the live animal in November 1926 and suggested it for dinner. Coolidge had never eaten raccoon and declined. Rebecca came out of it a lot better than the sender had planned.

Sources (3)

138. Delaware’s Punkin Chunkin drew more than 100 teams of backyard tinkerers firing pumpkins for a 1,500-pound trophy. How much prize money came with it?

Reveal answer

None

The championship record shot, in 2013, flew 4,694.68 feet. That's close to nine-tenths of a mile, for a trophy and bragging rights.

Sources (2)

139. In 2013, Hanukkah overlapped with Thanksgiving, something one calculation says won't happen again for about 79,000 years. What mashup name did the day get?

Reveal answer

Thanksgivukkah

A nine-year-old in New York City went further and invented the Menurkey, a turkey-shaped menorah, paid for through Kickstarter.

Sources (3)

140. At a festival in Yellville, Arkansas, live turkeys were dropped from the courthouse roof for the crowd to catch and keep for Thanksgiving dinner. Starting in 1948, what were they dropped from?

Reveal answer

An airplane

A local pilot took over the job. The festival had started in 1946 to draw attention to the Ozarks' dwindling wild turkeys. In 1989 the National Enquirer called it "sick" and "bizarre," which brought it plenty of notoriety.

Sources (2)

141. After secretly leaving his Texas ranch, George W. Bush surprised troops at Thanksgiving dinner in which city in 2003?

Reveal answer

Baghdad (accept Iraq)

He slipped out of his Crawford ranch in a plain-looking vehicle with tinted windows, and ground crews at the Waco airport were told Air Force One was only going on a maintenance flight.

Sources (1)

142. Which day of Thanksgiving weekend set the TSA's passenger-screening record in 2024?

Reveal answer

The Sunday after Thanksgiving

On December 1st, 2024, airport officers screened 3.09 million travelers, about 74,000 more than the previous record. Wednesday gets the attention, but that year’s record came on the trip home.

Sources (3)

Hard2

143. What was the nickname for the old New York Thanksgiving custom of children dressing as beggars and going door to door for treats?

Reveal answer

Ragamuffin Day

Before Halloween trick-or-treating caught on, New York children were collecting candy or money on Thanksgiving. The custom began a few years after Lincoln's proclamation.

Sources (2)

144. Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to celebrate Thanksgiving outside the United States. In 1936 he ate his Thanksgiving dinner in the South Atlantic, aboard which Navy ship?

Reveal answer

USS Indianapolis

He had boarded at Charleston, South Carolina, on November 18th and was on his way to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Sources (2)

Thanksgiving and harvest festival traditions around the world

Medium5

145. Thanksgiving in the USA is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, but when is Canada’s Thanksgiving?

Reveal answer

The second Monday of October

Canadian Thanksgiving shares many aspects of American Thanksgiving, right down to the turkey. Canadians often trace it back to 1578, when Martin Frobisher and his crew gave thanks for surviving the voyage from England, or to 1606, when Samuel de Champlain started the Order of Good Cheer, a run of feasts to keep the French settlers at Port-Royal going through the winter. The second Monday of October only became the official date in 1957.

Sources (3)

146. Which West African country received its Thanksgiving tradition from formerly enslaved people who settled there from America?

Reveal answer

Liberia

Liberians give thanks three weeks before we do, on the first Thursday of November. People bring fresh fruit from the harvest to church, and after the service it's auctioned off.

Sources (3)

147. Which Caribbean island nation celebrates its own Thanksgiving Day on October 25th, the anniversary of a 1983 US-led invasion?

Reveal answer

Grenada

The operation began at dawn on October 25th, 1983. The anniversary is now a public holiday there, known locally as Thanksgiving Day.

Sources (2)

148. Puerto Rican Thanksgiving turkey called pavochón is seasoned to taste like what other roasted animal?

Reveal answer

Pig (accept pork)

The name combines pavo, meaning turkey, and lechón, meaning roast pig. The bird can also be stuffed with mofongo: fried plantains mashed with garlic, olive oil and other ingredients.

Sources (2)

149. Which group fleeing the American Revolution helped spread Thanksgiving celebrations to other parts of Canada?

Reveal answer

Loyalists (accept United Empire Loyalists)

When the Loyalists were exiled, they took the customs of American Thanksgiving north with them, including the turkey, pumpkin and squash.

Sources (3)

Hard4

150. During Chuseok, Korea’s harvest festival, families eat a stuffed food, but it isn’t turkey. What is it?

Reveal answer

Rice cakes (songpyeon)

Rice is ground down into a flour and then water is added to make a rice dough. Then that dough is stuffed with lots of different types of ingredients and formed into small rice cakes which then are steamed over pine needles.

Songpyeon - Thanksgiving Trivia Questions

Image source and more info at the Songpyeon page on Wikipedia

Sources (2)

151. Where is the only place in Australia where Thanksgiving is a public holiday?

Reveal answer

Norfolk Island

The custom was brought there by American whaling ships and it just kind of stuck. Islanders get the last Wednesday of November off for it. The rest of Australia doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving.

Sources (4)

152. Around Labor Thanksgiving Day, who do lots of Japanese preschoolers give drawings and thank-you cards to?

Reveal answer

The police

Kindergartners and young schoolkids often bring drawings and handmade cards to the nearest police station to thank the officers for their work. Fire stations get some too, so we’ll take firefighters. Labor Thanksgiving Day was established in 1948, after World War II, to celebrate hard work and giving thanks to each other. But its roots are much older. It comes from Niinamesai, an ancient harvest festival in which the emperor offers the year’s newly harvested grain to the gods, and shrines still hold it today.

Sources (4)

153. Which South American country has a National Thanksgiving Day, set by law on the fourth Thursday of November, the same day as ours?

Reveal answer

Brazil

The idea came from Joaquim Nabuco, Brazil's ambassador in Washington, who wanted Thanksgiving to become a worldwide event. Brazil made it official in 1949, and a 1966 law put it on the fourth Thursday of November.

Sources (2)

Thanksgiving trivia for kids

Easy14

154. Which colors can a wild turkey's head turn: red, white and blue; yellow, green and brown; or orange, pink and black?

Reveal answer

Red, white and blue

The color can change with the season. Even the legs come in different colors, including pink, gray and silver.

Sources (2)

155. A male wild turkey's poop usually looks like which letter: O, J or S?

Reveal answer

J

A female's poop usually curls into a spiral instead. Scientists and hunters can use the shape to help tell them apart. Yes, someone had to study turkey poop.

Sources (2)

156. Where do wild turkeys go to sleep to stay out of reach of most animals hunting on the ground?

Reveal answer

Up in trees

Wild turkeys fly up and perch together for the night.

Sources (3)

157. At most, how far away can a wild turkey's gobble be heard: about 100 feet, one mile or five miles?

Reveal answer

Up to about one mile

Male turkeys sometimes gobble from up in a tree so the sound travels farther. That's a very loud bird to have anywhere near your window.

Sources (5)

158. According to the National Park Service, wild turkeys now live in every U.S. state except one. Which state is missing: Hawaii, Alaska or Maine?

Reveal answer

Alaska

The Park Service says forests growing back and a program that brought turkeys back put wild turkeys in every state except Alaska. Hawaii has wild turkeys too, because people brought them there.

Sources (2)

159. How soon after hatching can a baby wild turkey first feed itself: within a day, after a week or after a month?

Reveal answer

Within a day

The chicks can walk by then too. They hatch well developed, so a one-day-old turkey already has a lot figured out.

Sources (2)

160. About how long did the Mayflower's Atlantic crossing take: two weeks, two months or six months?

Reveal answer

About two months

The crossing was often stormy. At one point, a main beam even cracked. Two months is a long time to wait for a rough boat ride to end.

Sources (2)

161. A storm swept a Mayflower passenger into the ocean. What hanging from the ship did he grab so people could pull him back?

Reveal answer

A rope

The passenger was John Howland, and he made it back aboard. After he caught the trailing rope, people used a boat hook to help haul him out.

Sources (3)

162. Wampanoag farmers grew corn, beans and squash together. Which plant did the beans use as something to climb?

Reveal answer

Corn

These crops are called the Three Sisters. As the corn grew, the beans wound around its stalks. Squash grew around the base of the corn.

Sources (2)

163. Macy's balloon handlers hang on to a gadget with handles that helps them control the balloon's rope. It's nicknamed after something dogs chew. What is it called?

Reveal answer

The dog bone

Giant balloons can need dozens of handlers. The dog bone lets them let out or pull in rope when the wind picks up.

Sources (2)

164. About how many feathers does a grown turkey have: 350, 3,500 or 35,000?

Reveal answer

About 3,500

That's an average, so not every turkey has exactly that many; some sources say 5,000 to 6,000. Counting one bird's feathers would still take you all afternoon.

Sources (2)

165. Wild turkeys can fly short distances. What else can they do to get across a pond or a river?

Reveal answer

Swim

They tuck their wings in close, spread their tails and kick with their legs. They only swim when they need to.

Sources (2)

166. Which Sesame Street character's costume uses feathers from a turkey's rear end?

Reveal answer

Big Bird

The feathers get dyed yellow. The company that supplied them in 2008 said those rear-end feathers are rarely clean, and Sesame Street turned down nine out of ten.

Sources (1)

167. Turkey farmers in England in the 1700s often covered the birds' feet with what, to protect them on the walk to market?

Reveal answer

Little booties (accept shoes)

Turkeys were walked to the London market in large herds. Another way to protect their feet was tar and sand.

Sources (2)

Medium8

168. Wild turkeys can fly. What about a farm turkey's body makes flying much harder?

Reveal answer

Big body and short wings (accept too heavy, or wings too small)

Farm turkeys have shorter wings and very large breast muscles, leaving them almost flightless. The wild birds can still take to the air when they need to.

Sources (2)

169. What bone found in a Thanksgiving turkey was also found in T. rex and Velociraptor?

Reveal answer

The wishbone

Two collarbones join together to make it. In a turkey, it helps brace the wings and gives muscles somewhere to attach. Some dinosaurs had one too.

Sources (2)

170. The Mayflower first traveled with another ship, the Speedwell. What problem with that ship made them turn back twice?

Reveal answer

It leaked

Both ships had to return to England because of the water getting into Speedwell. For a ship with that name, it certainly slowed the trip down.

Sources (2)

171. Growers flood cranberry fields at harvest. What inside each berry helps it float?

Reveal answer

Tiny pockets of air

The berries grow on vines. When it's harvest time, growers add water and loosen them from the plants. The floating berries can then be gathered together.

Sources (3)

172. Turkeys are one of only two farm birds that came from the Americas. The other one is a kind of what: chicken, duck or goose?

Reveal answer

Duck (the Muscovy duck)

It's the Muscovy duck. Chickens didn't start out here, and neither did farm geese.

Sources (3)

173. Some Plymouth children learned their letters from a wooden paddle with a page attached. What clear material covered the page: glass, cow horn or turtle shell?

Reveal answer

Cow horn (a thin slice)

Cut thin enough, a slice of cow horn is clear enough to read through. That's why the paddle was called a hornbook. Plymouth children might use one if their parents owned one.

Sources (2)

174. In Wampanoag families in the 1600s, who usually owned the home and garden plot?

Reveal answer

The women

Women did most of the farming, so ownership of the family plots usually went to them. And in the Wampanoag way, the houses belonged to the women because they are the ones who give birth to the children.

Sources (3)

175. How much does a wild turkey dad help raise his chicks?

Reveal answer

Not at all (the mother does everything)

Mom does the whole job. She makes the nest, keeps the eggs warm and looks after the chicks on her own.

Sources (2)

Hard2

176. Wampanoag, the name of a Native people, means “People of the First” what?

Reveal answer

Light

The name also means people of the east. “People of the First Light” is the wording the Wampanoag use themselves.

Sources (2)

177. Each strand of corn silk connects to how many kernels?

Reveal answer

One

Each silk belongs to one tiny flower on the cob, and that flower grows into one kernel. So every kernel you eat had a silk of its own.

Sources (2)

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