Thanksgiving Day Traditions
The main tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving Day is to spend this day with family and close friends, to be with those to whom you are grateful for every minute of communication.

On the table, dishes such as baked turkey in cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes are sure to be present. The celebration also has its own traditional drink - apple cider. Before starting the meal, all family members, as a rule, thank God and each other for all the good things that have happened to them over the past year.
In addition to family dinners, parades have already become traditional.

This tradition dates back to 1924, when employees of Macy's department stores decided to organize a carnival in honor of the start of Christmas markets in the stores of the network.

Then 400 people in carnival costumes marched through the streets of New York, accompanied by professional orchestras and 25 live animals from the local zoo. Now, instead of animals, huge inflatable figures "participate" in the parades - from cartoon Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, Garfield to Santa Claus.

In addition, on the eve of Thanksgiving, it is customary to do good deeds. It is very popular among philanthropists to distribute free meals to the homeless and the poor.

Thanksgiving also serves as a kind of opening of the Christmas and New Year holidays, so immediately after the holiday comes "Black Friday" - the time of sales.

Thanksgiving: "Turkey Pardon"

Another Thanksgiving tradition is to pardon the turkey. This is a half-serious, half-joking ceremony on the eve of the holiday, during which the president reads the decree on the pardon of the turkey on the lawn in front of the White House. After that, the "pardoned" bird is sent to the zoo, where it lives until death.

By the way, the “national turkey” is chosen by ordinary Americans. To do this, the White House holds a special vote every year, during which those who wish are invited to choose the best bird from 30 feathered candidates.

Thanksgiving Day: Interesting Facts
1. Thanksgiving became a public holiday thanks to the efforts of the writer Sarah Josepha Hale - she wrote letters to Abraham Lincoln for 17 years asking him to legalize the holiday, and the president agreed.

2. Initially, there was no turkey on the festive table. The first Thanksgivings were celebrated with venison, goose, oysters, lobsters, and mashed potatoes.

3. More than 46 million carcasses are eaten every year during Thanksgiving, each weighing an average of 14 kg.

4. In honor of Thanksgiving in 2005, a pumpkin pie was baked, which got into the Guinness Book of Records - it weighed 916 kg.

5. Turkey meat was the first meal of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when they landed on the moon.