Hey High 5-ers, with Thanksgiving being celebrated in the United States today, what are your plans for the holiday weekend… besides playing Gobblers Gone Wild on High 5 Casino?

Did you know that in 2015, 46.9 million Americans traveled 50 miles or more over the Thanksgiving weekend? AAA estimates that tomorrow, 48.7 million Americans will travel to be with family and friends for the holiday. While you begin your preparations for your great feast, check out some Thanksgiving facts below:

1. The first Thanksgiving was held in the autumn of 1621, however it did not become a holiday until 1863! It took over 200 years and a 17 year campaign by Sarah Josepha Hale, for President Lincoln to implement the holiday.

2.  Forks weren’t the only thing missing from the first Thanksgiving dinner shared between 90 Wampanoag Native Americans and 50 pilgrims…so were turkey, pumpkin pie and delicious cranberry sauce! Yes, that’s right turkey was not served at the first Thanksgiving and neither were pumpkin pies. Historians have reported that venison, ducks, geese, oysters, lobsters, eel and fish were mostly likely consumed at the first Thanksgiving along with raw cranberries and pumpkins. The Native Americans and pilgrims used spoons and knives to eat, as the fork wasn’t introduced until 10 years later!

3. Did you know that there are 6 major US States that produce the majority of pumpkins? The USDA reports that in 2015, Illinois, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New York produced a combined 753.8 million pounds of pumpkins!

4. Over 50 million people tune their TV’s to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, are you one of them? Is watching the parade a tradition in your house? Here are some interesting facts!

• The first Thanksgiving Day Parade was launched by employees of Macy’s in 1924 and featured animals from the Central Park Zoo!
• The first balloon character to appear in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was Snoopy in 1927! Snoopy has appeared in the parade more than any other character and was designed by Tony Sarg!

5. After watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, do you turn on some football? This year marks 96 years since the first NFL Thanksgiving Day Football Game took place in 1920!

You can’t have Thanksgiving without a turkey, can you? Here are some interesting facts about turkeys:

•  Turkeys are intelligent, sensitive and highly social animals that create lasting bonds with one another. A wild turkey has the ability to learn the precise details of an area over 1,000 acres in size!
• A group of turkeys can be called several different things including: a “crop,” “dole,” “gang,” “posse,” and “rafter.”
• A baby turkey is known as a “polut” or “chick”.
• A young female turkey is called a “jenny” and a young male turkey is called a “jake”.
• Did you know only male turkeys can gobble? To announce themselves to female turkeys, male turkeys gobble to assert their dominance.

What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions? Let us know by commenting in the conversation bubble on the top right hand corner of the page!