Thanksgiving Trivia

It was once believed that merely touching a wishbone would bring you good luck. Squabbles over the bone eventually led to the custom of tugging them until they snapped, and the holder of the longer piece would be granted a wish.

There may not have been turkey at the first thanksgiving feast, but there was almost certainly popcorn - one of the many gifts from the settlers for their guests.

Cranberry jelly was on the first Thanksgiving table. The cranberry is a small, sour berry that grows in bogs, or muddy areas, in the New England states. The Indians used the fruit to treat infections and the juice to dye their rugs and blankets. They taught the colonists how to cook the berries with sweetener and water to make a sauce. The Indians called it "ibimi" which means "bitter berry." When the colonists saw it, they named it "crane-berry" because the flowers of the berry bent the stalk over, and it resembled the long-necked bird called a crane. The berries are still grown in New England. Very few people know, however, that before the berries are put in bags to be sent to the rest of the country, each individual berry must bounce at least four inches high to make sure they are not too ripe.