Fun facts about Thanksgiving

Cranberries are considered one of three fruits native to North America. The others are blueberries and Concord grapes. Cranberries are grown in bogs, mostly in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin.

The popular song "Over The River and Through the Woods" was written by Lydia Maria Child and published in 1845 as "The New-England Boy's Song About Thanksgiving Day." It had 12 verses.

Canada celebrates Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October. Many Asian countries, such as India, China, Malaysia and Korea have large harvest festivals each year.

In 1921, Gimbel's department store in Philadelphia started the department store-sponsored Thanksgiving Parade. The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was started in New York in 1924. Snoopy has appeared as a giant balloon in the Macy's parade more times than any other character.

The custom of breaking the wishbone for good luck (the one who ends up with the largest piece is supposed to get his or her wish) dates back to Etruscan times. The Etruscans used chickens as fortune-tellers. When one of the chickens died it was left in the sun to dry, and people who wanted to stroke an unbroken bone and make a wish were allowed to do so. The Romans continued this tradition, but began to break the bones. They brought the custom to England, and the English took it to the New World.

Fossil evidence shows that turkeys roamed North America some 10 million years ago.

Benjamin Franklin wanted to name the turkey as America's national bird, but it lost out to the eagle. Legend has it that Thomas Jefferson was Franklin's main opponent on the issue, and so Franklin began calling male turkeys "toms" in honor of his foe.

The Mayflower returned to England on April 5, 1621. It made several other trading runs to Spain, Ireland and other places. It eventually fell into disrepair and is thought to have been broken apart for scrap wood.

Sources: "The Folklore of American Holidays," by Hennig Cohen and Tristam Potter Coffin; "The Thanksgiving Book," ed. by Melinda Corey; "Thanksgiving: The True Story," by Penny Colman; Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, Mass. (www.pilgrimhall.org); www.thanksgivingnovember.com; www.thanksgiving-day.org

e-mail: carma@desnews.com