One might think to oneself, “There’s really nothing odd about Thanksgiving. It’s a pretty boring, bland holiday in which we consume large amounts of turkey, stuffing, vegetables, rolls and pumpkin pie.”  I would tend to agree with you.  However, not being satisfied with not digging up at least SOME odd history about this holiday, I persevered and was able to find a few things that I thought might interest you.  Somewhat.  (If you haven’t caught on, this post is a challenge for me.)

What I found most interesting about odd traditions of Thanksgiving comes from New York.  “In New York City there are lots of engaging Thanksgiving traditions.  For example, a lot of New Yorkers don’t buy the frozen Thanksgiving turkey.  They prefer to buy the bird live and then push it in front of a subway train.”  That was a joke folks.  From David Letterman.  Seriously though…

It seems that in the Chinese section of San Francisco, engaged couples have a habit of buying a lock and a key, and then proceeding to chain the lock to the Golden Gate Bridge.  Then, inexplicably, they throw away the key.

An interesting tidbit about the first Thanksgiving feast, celebrated by our Puritan forefathers:  Historians don’t know for sure that turkey was actually served.  The only two meats they CAN confirm for sure included venison, and ”wild fowl.”  Maybe turkey was included under the category of “wild fowl”, maybe it wasn’t.  We just don’t know for sure.

Another odd historical practice I discovered in my studies (and I say odd, because my family has never done this):  knock three times on a wooden board before putting the turkey in the oven.  Why?  Supposedly the meat will come out tasting succulent.  (Personally, I think it’s my mother-in-law’s garlic butter that she coats the turkey with that makes it that way…but who knows.)

This one I found amusing:  Detroit has its’ own Thanksgiving parade down Woodward Ave.  And on the day of Thanksgiving, the Detroit Lions “play” a game of football.  Yes.  I put play in quotes.  Maybe I shouldn’t have.  I’m a Browns fan.  You can’t say a whole lot more about my team…

Thanksgiving 2009 will mark the 62nd anniversary of the President of the United States of America, “pardoning” a turkey (and its’ alternate) from certain death.  That’s right folks.  The leader of the free world will pardon a…turkey.  Odd.  Just…odd.  (And what I’d like to know is, why does the turkey have an alternate anyway?)

A relatively “new” historical element of Thanksgiving:  Green Bean Casserole.  Green bean casserole was invented in 1955 by Campbell Soup.  One might inquire:  “Why would they have done such a thing?”  From what I’ve read, it’s because they were trying to come up with new recipes for their annual Campbell’s cookbook.  Thanks Campbells.  Thanks so much.  (In my opinion, the ONLY thing that makes that casserole even remotely edible are those french onions sprinkled on top.)

So there you have it, some of the odd history and traditions of Thanksgiving.  A not so odd thought on Thanksgiving:  We here at PrintMyThing and PrintMyRibbon are very thankful to you, our customers for your patronage.  Happy Thanksgiving!