Turkey, mashed potatoes, family, thanks, and more turkey. This Thursday, millions of families around the country will be celebrating Thanksgiving. Although Thanksgiving is one of the more popular holidays in the United States, many people don’t know the history of the occasion. 

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday that is celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November. The holiday tradition can be traced back to a celebration at Plymouth, in what is today Massachusetts. The celebration was prompted after a successful harvest, aided by an Indian chief named Squanto, that the Pilgrims had in 1621.

Believe it or not, up until the time of Abraham Lincoln, Thanksgiving Day varied on times throughout the year, based on the state. After over 35 years of campaigning, a woman by the name of Sarah Josepha Hale convinced Abraham Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. On December 26, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared Thanksgiving on the fourth thursday of every November. Originally, FDR thought that Thanksgiving would give the country an economic boost.

Today, just around $2,375,000,000 is spent in the US on Thanksgiving food every year. The average turkey weighs just about 30 lbs, and in 2013, 242 million turkeys were raised in the United States. That’s over 7 billion pounds of pure, juicy, delicious turkey meat raised every year. To add to that, the average American consumes 4500 calories during one Thanksgiving meal.

The Thanksgiving meals that we have today are not all that similar to the very  first Turkey Day. Back then, wild goose, deer, shellfish, and fish were the main course. Today, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and good old cranberry sauce makes up the mass of most of our meals.

Sophomore Bridget Sullivan says that her favorite Thanksgiving food is, “Definitely the mashed potatoes,” while senior Gemma Caglioti, said she liked the pumpkin pie the most. Journalism teacher Ms. Juma likes the “corn bake”, whatever that is.