However, despite the popular misconception that the festival is a religious ceremony, Thanksgiving is actually a celebration to express gratitude.
Thanksgiving's history in North America is rooted in the English traditions, dating from the Protestant Reformation.
It also has aspects of a harvest festival, even though the harvest in New England occurs well before the late-November date on which the modern Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated.
Thanksgiving became an official holiday of the United States since 1863.
Here are some of the facts about the 'Thanksgiving celebration that many may not know:
1. Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in Canada and the United States as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. It is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the US.
2. In the US, about 280 million turkeys are sold for the Thanksgiving celebrations.
3. Each year, the average American eats somewhere between 16 - 18 pounds of turkey.
4. Californians are the largest consumers of turkey in the US.
5. Turducken, a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken, is becoming more popular during Thanksgiving. Originating from Louisiana, a turducken is a de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken.
6. Corn is one of the popular symbols of Thanksgiving. It comes in many varieties and colors - red, white, yellow and blue.
7. Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, where it is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season.
8. One of the Founding Fathers of US, Benjamin Franklin had wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the US.
9. Sarah Josepha Hale, an American magazine editor, persuaded Abraham Lincoln to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. She is also the author of the popular nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
10. Abraham Lincoln issued a 'Thanksgiving Proclamation' on third October 1863 and officially set aside the last Thursday of November as the national day for Thanksgiving.
11. The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition began in the 1920's.
12. In 1939, President Roosevelt proclaimed that Thanksgiving would take place on November 23rd, not November 30th, as a way to spur economic growth and extend the Christmas shopping season.
13. Congress had passed a law on December 26, 1941, ensuring that all Americans would celebrate a unified Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November every year.
14. Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented a live turkey and two dressed turkeys to the President. The President does not eat the live turkey. He "pardons" it and allows it to live out its days on a historical farm.
