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Talking Turkey: Fun Facts to Spread Around the Office

Thanksgiving means different things to all of us, but some common denominators spring to mind: turkey, pumpkin pie, football, family, traffic jams, the mother of all parades (in New York and/or on national TV), Black Friday, holiday shopping, a long weekend, leftovers, more turkey. For us HR types, it can mean juggling employee vacation schedules between now and the end of the year; year-end reviews; bonus payouts; holiday parties; or maybe just a much-needed slowdown in business at the end of a hectic year.

If you're hosting Thanksgiving dinner, you will most likely be cooking one of roughly 46 million turkeys nationwide, and your main course may cost you a bit more this year: Wholesale prices are at a two-decade high, thanks to a decrease in supply brought on by a grain-related drought in 2012 that sent the prices of all meats soaring, including poultry.

However, every cloud has a silver lining. Even if grocers have to pay wholesalers more for the 20% of all turkeys consumed in the U.S. on an annual basis on "Turkey Day," you likely won't feel the pinch, as turkeys are known in economic circles as "loss leaders," or discounted enticements to get buyers into stores. (This could also explain in part why Black Friday coincides with Thanksgiving.)

More good news: Last year, the cost of preparing a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for 10 hit a four-year low of $49.04. Also, the price of gasoline is way down this year, which is good news for your guests, according to a recent Bloomberg article.

Most of us think of Thanksgiving as the ultimate secular holiday because it doesn't involve anything related to organized religion, and we all express gratitude in personal ways. Of course, it started out as inherently religious: the Pilgrims who celebrated it way back in 1621 were themselves refugees from religious persecution.

Did You Know?

And, lest we forget, Thanksgiving has quite an interesting history attached to it. Here are some lesser-known facts about the holiday, courtesy of the website www.coolest-holiday-parties.com:

  • The first known feast of Thanksgiving in North America is thought to have been celebrated not by the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock (or Cape Cod) but by the explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and the Native Americans he called "Tejas."
  • Thanksgiving feasts were celebrated intermittently on a national level – by the Colonies in 1777 and again as a nation in 1789 – but didn't become a national holiday until 1941, when Congress made it one, to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. Two years before, President Roosevelt had moved it up to the third Thursday in November in an attempt to start the holiday retail season a week early, and upset a whole lot of people (including calendar makers). Some people were confused and celebrated twice.
  • George Washington loved the idea of Thanksgiving, and declared a National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789. However, Thomas Jefferson thought it "the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard," which kind of put the kibosh on it until Abraham Lincoln revived it.
  • Christopher Columbus, off-course and thinking he was India, assumed the North American turkeys he encountered in abundance were a type of peacock, which are common in India (turkeys are actually part of the pheasant family). So he dubbed them "tuka," which is the Indian Tamil language for "peacock." (Note that Columbus Day is not uniformly celebrated in the U.S., and turkey is generally not eaten on it.)
  • Turkeys were one of the first animals in the Americas to be domesticated. They're also known to suffer heart attacks. When the Air Force was conducting test runs years ago that broke the sound barrier, entire fields of turkeys dropped dead on the spot.

At the End of the Day, It's About Giving Thanks

In all seriousness, it's a good time of year to remember what we're grateful for. Many of us are glad to be employed. All of us appreciate good health where it's to be found in ourselves and in our loved ones. Some of us are even glad to be celebrating the holiday with family, especially families that live far apart and maybe don't get together that often. One blogger, at shetakesontheworld, looked for gratitude in unusual aspects of her life last year during the holidays – some atypical things we don't often think about. On her list she includes:

• Red traffic lights, for forcing her to slow down and take a breath
• Critics in her life, who help her strive to be better
• Baristas who create art on top of her lattes
• Total strangers, who remind her that we are a diverse land
• Getting rejected for a big opportunity that came along, which reminded her of how brave and daring she can be

A very Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones. We hope you have much to be grateful for on Thanksgiving 2014.

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