61 Festive Facts About Thanksgiving

From the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to back-to-back NFL games, there are certain Thanksgiving traditions that you’re probably familiar with, even if your own celebration doesn’t necessarily include them. But how much do you really know about the high-calorie holiday?

To give you a crash course on the history of Thanksgiving and everything we associate with it, WalletHub compiled stats from the U.S. Census Bureau, the American Farm Bureau Association, Harris Poll, and more into one illuminating infographic. Featured facts include the date Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday (October 3, 1863) and the percentage of Americans whose favorite dish is turkey (39 percent).

Not only is it interesting to learn how the majority of Americans celebrate the holiday, it also might make you feel better about how your own Thanksgiving usually unfolds. If you’re frantically calling the Butterball Turkey hotline for help on how to cook a giant bird, you’re not alone—the hotline answers more than 100,000 questions in November and December. And you’re in good company if your family forgoes the home-cooked meal altogether, too: 9 percent of Americans head to a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner.

It’s also a great way to fill in the blanks of your Thanksgiving knowledge. You might know that the president ceremoniously pardons one lucky turkey every year, but do you know which president kicked off the peculiar practice? It was George H.W. Bush, in 1989.

Read on to discover the details of America’s most delicious holiday below, and find out why we eat certain foods on Thanksgiving here.

Source: WalletHub

[h/t WalletHub]