Here at House of Lor, we always acknowledge Thanksgiving Day. It is a special day in the year for our American customers. Did you know more than 31.5 million residents claim Irish ancestry?
The city with the highest Irish population is Boston, Massachusetts. At House of Lor, our Irish Gold Jewelry is mined and designed in Ireland. The design inspiration for our pieces is inspired by our rich Celtic heritage, making them very special to our American customers. A piece of home, to wear, treasure and love.
What is Thanksgiving and how is it celebrated?
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated by Americans on the fourth Thursday of November. This year It falls on November 25th. It celebrates the story of the Pilgrim’s meal with the Native Americans and is reserved as a day to spend with loved ones and for giving thanks. Most families celebrate the day with a large meal.
Why is Thanksgiving so important?
Thanksgiving is important because it’s a positive and secular holiday where we celebrate gratitude, something that we don’t do enough of these days. It’s also a celebration of the fall harvest.
Thanksgiving Fun Facts
- The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 over a three-day harvest festival. It included 50 Pilgrims, 90 Wampanoag Indians. It is believed by historians that only five women were present.
- Turkey wasn’t on the menu at the first Thanksgiving. Venison, duck, goose, oysters, lobster, eel, and fish were likely served, alongside pumpkins and cranberries (but not pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce!).
- Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday on October 3, 1863. Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who wrote “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” convinced Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday after writing letters for 17 years.
- The history of U.S. presidents pardoning turkeys is patchy. Harry Truman is often credited with being the first president to pardon a turkey, but that’s not quite true. He was the first to receive a ceremonial turkey from the National Turkey Federation – and he had it for dinner. John F. Kennedy was the first to let a Thanksgiving turkey go, followed by Richard Nixon who sent his turkey to a petting zoo. George H.W. Bush is the president who formalized the turkey pardoning tradition in 1989.
- There are four towns in the United States named “Turkey.” They can be found in Arizona, Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina.
- The average number of calories consumed on Thanksgiving is 4,500.
- Butterball answers more than 100,000 turkey-cooking questions via their Butterball Turkey Hotline each November and December.
- The tradition of football on Thanksgiving began in 1876 with a game between Yale and Princeton. The first NFL games were played on Thanksgiving in 1920.
- More than 54 million Americans are expected to travel during the Thanksgiving holiday this year.
How the Irish saved Thanksgiving
No one can say for sure exactly when the first Thanksgiving was celebrated, but at least one historian thinks it was invented as a day of Thanksgiving for the generosity of the Irish people after a ship from Ireland, bursting with provisions, landed in Massachusetts Bay in the freezing winter of 1621.
The first Thanksgiving was actually celebrated on Feb 21, 1621, when a band of starving pilgrims at Plymouth Rock were saved at the last minute by the arrival of a ship from Dublin bearing food from Ireland.
It turns out, from records at the Massachusetts Historical Society, that the wife of one of the prominent Plymouth Rock brethren was the daughter of a Dublin merchant and that it was he who chartered the vessel, loaded it with food and dispatched it to Plymouth.
To all our American friends and customer’s, we are thinking of you on Thanksgiving Day. We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, with family and friends. With appreciation for your business and your loyalty throughout the year. Best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving, from all at House of Lor.
