33 Thanksgiving Trivia Questions and Answers
Thanksgiving trivia about the Pilgrims and the Mayflower, the harvest feast of 1621, the presidents who shaped the holiday, and the parades, football and food that go with it. There are also a few questions about the turkey itself. Answers are shown under each question.
There are 33 questions on this page. They are free to use for quiz nights, classrooms and pub quizzes, and each one links to its own page.
Related lists: Christmas trivia questions, Halloween trivia questions, American History trivia questions, NFL trivia questions, Food and Drink trivia questions.
1.Thanksgiving in the United States falls on the fourth Thursday of which month?
Answer: November
Open this question2.Thanksgiving in Canada is celebrated on the second Monday of which month?
Answer: October
Open this question3.The 1621 harvest feast often called the "First Thanksgiving" was held in which colony?
Answer: Plymouth Colony
Open this question4.Which Native American people shared the 1621 harvest feast with the Pilgrims at Plymouth?
Answer: The Wampanoag
Open this question5.Which President proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863, during the Civil War?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln
Open this question6.Which magazine editor, the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", campaigned for years to make Thanksgiving a national holiday?
Answer: Sarah Josepha Hale
Open this question7.Which President moved Thanksgiving a week earlier in 1939, hoping to lengthen the Christmas shopping season?
Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Open this question8.Which department store has given its name to the Thanksgiving Day parade first held in New York City in 1924?
Answer: Macy's
Open this question9.Which cartoon cat was the first character balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, in 1927?
Answer: Felix the Cat
Open this question10.Which NFL team began its tradition of playing a home game every Thanksgiving Day in 1934?
Answer: Detroit Lions
Open this question11.Which NFL team began hosting an annual Thanksgiving Day game in 1966?
Answer: Dallas Cowboys
Open this question12.By what name is the day after Thanksgiving known in the United States?
Answer: Black Friday
Open this question13.What is the name of the fleshy growth that hangs over the beak of a turkey?
Answer: The snood
Open this question14.The wild turkey is native to which continent?
Answer: North America
Open this question15.Which Founding Father wrote in a 1784 letter to his daughter that the turkey was "a much more respectable bird" than the bald eagle?
Answer: Benjamin Franklin
Open this question16.Which amino acid found in turkey is popularly blamed for drowsiness after Thanksgiving dinner?
Answer: Tryptophan
Open this question17.Before settling at Plymouth, the Pilgrims first anchored in 1620 in the harbor of which present-day Massachusetts town at the tip of Cape Cod?
Answer: Provincetown
Open this question18.Which member of the Patuxet tribe, who spoke English, acted as interpreter and guide to the Pilgrims at Plymouth?
Answer: Squanto (Tisquantum)
Open this question19.Who was the Wampanoag leader who made a peace treaty with the Plymouth colonists in 1621?
Answer: Massasoit
Open this question20.Which governor of Plymouth Colony wrote the history "Of Plymouth Plantation"?
Answer: William Bradford
Open this question21.What is the anatomical name for a bird's wishbone?
Answer: The furcula
Open this question22.In which year did the fourth Thursday of November become the uniform date of Thanksgiving across the United States?
Answer: 1941
Open this question23.What is an adult male turkey called?
Answer: A tom
Open this question24.Who wrote the 1844 Thanksgiving poem that became the song "Over the River and Through the Wood"?
Answer: Lydia Maria Child
Open this question25.In which 1973 animated television special do Snoopy and Woodstock serve a Thanksgiving meal of toast, popcorn, pretzels and jelly beans?
Answer: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Open this question26.Which President, in 1989, was the first to formally grant a "pardon" to the National Thanksgiving Turkey?
Answer: George H. W. Bush
Open this question27.Which Arlo Guthrie song of 1967, more than 18 minutes long, tells a story that begins on Thanksgiving Day?
Answer: Alice's Restaurant
Open this question28.How many passengers did the Mayflower carry on its 1620 voyage to America?
Answer: 102
Open this question29.In which Dutch city did the Pilgrims live before they sailed to America?
Answer: Leiden
Open this question30.Which West African country celebrates Thanksgiving on the first Thursday of November?
Answer: Liberia
Open this question31.The cornucopia, a symbol of the harvest, is also known by what three-word English name?
Answer: Horn of plenty
Open this question32.Which President issued the first national Thanksgiving proclamation under the Constitution, in 1789?
Answer: George Washington
Open this question33.Which fruit is made into the sauce commonly served as a side dish with Thanksgiving dinner in North America?
Answer: Cranberry
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