Thanksgiving (Part 2)

Choose an answer from the three choices offered after each question and then "Check Your Answers" at the end of the quiz.

1. One city claims the first thanksgiving was held in what is now known as the United States, but it was not a harvest celebration. Spaniard Don Juan de Oņate ordered his expedition party to rest and conducted a mass celebration of thanksgiving on April 30, 1598. What U.S. city makes the claim for the first thanksgiving?

• El Paso, Texas
• Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Nogales, Arizona

2. A collective prayer of thanksgiving was led by in the Virginia Colony on December 4, 1619 near the current site of Berkeley Plantation, where celebrations are still held each year in November.

• Captain John Smith
• Captain Daniel Gooden
• Captain John Woodlief

3. The Pilgrims were particularly thankful to Squanto, the Native American who taught them how to catch eel and grow corn and who served as an interpreter for them (Squanto had learned English as a slave in Europe and travels in England).

• True or False?

4. The Pilgrims did not hold a true Thanksgiving until 1623, when it followed a drought, prayers for rain, and a subsequent rain shower. Irregular Thanksgivings continued after favorable events and days of fasting after unfavorable ones. In the Plymouth tradition, a thanksgiving day was a church observance, rather than a feast day. What community held the first recorded Thanksgiving observance June 29, 1671 by proclamation of the town's governing council.

• Boston, Massachusetts
• Plymouth, Massachusetts
• Charlestown, Massachusetts

5. George Washington, leader of the revolutionary forces in the American Revolutionary War, proclaimed a Thanksgiving in December 1777 as a victory celebration honoring the defeat of the British. What was the battle?

• Saratoga
• West Point
• Vicksburg

6. Thomas Jefferson during his presidency always proclaimed a Thanksgiving Day.

• True or False?

7. What President changed Thanksgiving from the last Thursday in November to the fourth Thursday in November?

• Theodore Roosevelt
• Franklin Roosevelt
• Herbert Hoover

8. First and foremost, turkey is usually the featured item on any Thanksgiving feast table (so much so that Thanksgiving is sometimes referred to as "Turkey Day"). Stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, maize, other fall vegetables, and pumpkin pie are commonly associated with Thanksgiving dinner. All of these primary dishes are actually native to the Americas or were introduced as a new food source to the Europeans when they arrived.

• True or False?

9. The American winter holiday season (generally the Christmas shopping season in the U.S.) traditionally begins the day after Thanksgiving. What is it known as?

• Black Friday
• Buy Nothing Day
• Turkey Game Day

10. What of the National Football League have hosted a game every Thanksgiving Day since 1934, with the exception of 1939–1944 (due to World War II)?

• The Detroit Lions
• The Dallas Cowboys
• The Washington Redskins

Check Your Answers

1. El Paso, Texas
2. Captain John Woodlief
3. True
4. Charlestown, Massachusetts
5. Saratoga
6. False. He never proclaimed a Thanksgiving Day.
7. Franklin Roosevelt
8. True
9. Black Friday
10. The Detroit Lions

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