Fun Facts from the Internet About the First Thanksgiving

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It was November 1621, give or take a couple of turkeys, when the pilgrims hosted their inaugural fall feast in celebration of both surviving the exceedingly long boat ride from England and then also thankfully being able to figure out how to grow food once they arrived.

And so they dined on mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and King’s Hawaiian dinner rolls like true kings themselves, having successfully evaded the King of England knowing that he’d never send troops all the way across the Atlantic Ocean after them.

Here are a few more fun facts about the first Thanksgiving that you might enjoy…

• Many pilgrims actually ate ham instead of turkey for the first Thanksgiving because they put off their grocery shopping until the last minute and the stores were all sold out.
• Although the first Thanksgiving was surprisingly without the family arguments it’s become known for today, this was mostly due to the fact that the orneriest of pilgrims died of scurvy on the ride over.
• Pilgrims are iconically known to wear hats with belt buckles on them due to an embarrassing mishap at the tailor’s that nobody had the guts to admit.
• The tradition of saying a blessing before dinner also happened quite by accident as one pilgrim was observed in saying, “Oh god, I hope we didn’t forget to turn the iron off back in England…”
• Some patriots are critical that prominent Founding Fathers George Washington and John Adams didn’t even attend the first Thanksgiving, despite the fact that neither would be born for another 110 years.
• Native Americans were welcomed to the pilgrims’ feast both as a sign of gratitude for teaching them how to farm for crops in their new land as well as for their innate ability to carve festive holiday animals out of butter.
• The first pumpkin pie was actually created using a mixture of those pumpkin-shaped candy corns and some orange food coloring, and people loved it so much that the next year they decided to try the real thing!
• The guy who invented stuffing was arrested and charged with multiple counts of animal abuse, yet the classic recipe still remains popular to this day.