When is Thanksgiving Day?
It is on the fourth Thursday in November – the day before Black Friday.
Thanksgiving Day traditionally kicks off the 'holiday season' in the United States. The day was set in stone by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 and approved by Congress in 1941. FDR changed it from Abraham Lincoln's designation as the last Thursday in November (because there are sometimes five Thursdays in the month).
While Britons think of it as a warm-up for the Yuletide period, many Americans think it of it as just as important as Christmas.
In fact, more people in the US celebrate Thanksgiving than they do Christmas. Thanksgiving Day is a secular holiday in a country that officially separates church and state so this probably makes sense.
What is the history of Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving Day can be traced back to the 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the religious refugees from England known popularly as the Pilgrims invited the local Native Americans to a harvest feast after a particularly successful growing season.
The previous year's harvests had failed and in the winter of 1620, half of the pilgrims had starved to death.
Luckily for the rest, members of the local Wampanoag tribe taught the Pilgrims how to grow corn, beans and squash (the Three Sisters); catch fish, and collect seafood.
There are only two contemporary accounts of the 1621 Thanksgiving, but it's clear that turkey was not on the menu. The three-day feast included goose, lobster, cod and deer.
So why do Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day?
Pilgrim Edward Winslow wrote a letter about that now-famous meal in 1621 which mentioned a turkey hunt before the dinner.
Another theory says the choice of turkey was inspired by Queen Elizabeth I who was eating dinner when she heard that Spanish ships had sunk on their way to attack England.
She was so thrilled with the news she ordered another goose be served. Some claim early US settlers roasted turkeys as they were inspired by her actions.
Others say that as wild turkeys are native to North America, they were a natural choice for early settlers.
Classic Thanksgiving dishes
Turkey: and/or ham, goose and duck or turduken (a spatchcocked combo of three whole birds!)
Stuffing (also known as dressing): a mix of bread cubes, chopped celery, carrots, onions and sage stuffed inside the turkey for roasting. Chestnuts, chopped bacon or sausage, and raisins or apples are also sometimes included in the stuffing.
Pies: pumpkin pies are most common, but pecan, apple, sweet potato and mincemeat pies are also quite popular.
Who set the date of Thanksgiving Day?
'The National Thanksgiving Proclamation' was the first formal proclamation of Thanksgiving in America. George Washington, the first president of the United States, made this proclamation on Oct 3, 1789.
Then in 1846, author Sarah Josepha Hale waged a one-woman campaign for Thanksgiving to be recognised as a truly national holiday.
Football!
Like soccer on Boxing Day in the UK, football (the American version) plays a major role in Thanksgiving.
The University of Detroit Stadium hosted the first Thanksgiving Day football game in 1934, pitting the Detroit Lions against the Chicago Bears.
The game was the brainchild of G.A. Richards, the first owner of the Detroit Lions. He was keen to promote the new franchise in a baseball-mad city, so he approached NBC to get them to broadcast the game across their national radio network. They agreed and the game became the first ever network broadcast event.
The game was such a hit it became a tradition in the US and football is now an integral part of the day.
Detroit has had played a game every year since, breaking only for World War Two. The Dallas Cowboys, too, have played every year on Thanksgiving since 1966, only missing two years in 1975 and 1977.
Annual Macy's parade
Another Thanksgiving tradition is the Macy's parade in New York City – an annual pageant of floats, cheerleaders, marching bands and gigantic balloons.
The parade dates back to the 1920s when many of the immigrant workers at Macy's department store were keen to celebrate the American holiday with the sort of festival their parents had thrown in Europe.
It originally started from 145th Street in Harlem and ended at Herald Square, making a 6-mile (9.7 km) route.
The newest route was introduced with the 2012 parade. This change eliminated Times Square and rerouted the parade down Sixth Avenue, a move that was protested by the Times Square BID, Broadway theatre owners and other groups.
New York City officials preview the parade route and try to move as many potential obstacles out of the way, including traffic signals.
Let's talk turkey
When European settlers encountered turkeys for the first time in the early 1500s, they incorrectly identified the birds as a type of guineafowl.
Since this group of birds were thought to come from Turkey, the North American bird was dubbed 'turkey fowl'.
This later became shortened to 'turkey' and entered the vernacular. The English navigator William Strickland, who introduced the turkey into England in 1550, was granted a coat of arms which included a "turkey-cock in his pride proper".
The official record of his crest in the archives of the College of Arms is said to be the oldest surviving European drawing of a turkey.
(In Portuguese the translation of turkey is 'peru'. The exotic birds taken back to 16th century Portugal had come from there, you see.)
Trains, planes and automobiles: some stats
The 12-day Thanksgiving period between from Nov 20 to Dec 1 will likely see over 25 million travelling to destinations worldwide according to trade organisation Airlines for America (A4A).
The projected number of 25.3 million is three per cent higher than the estimated 24.5 million passengers who made the journey in 2014.
That equates to approximately 65,000 people per day on top of average passengers for a total of 2.7 million people per day.