(Photo : Reuters)

Thanksgiving Day is a celebration of being thankful for the blessings and for having a loving family and close friends. The celebration of Thanksgiving varies depending on who is celebrating it and their unique traditions. 

The following are some Thanksgiving trivials:

1. There is no certainty on when the first Thanksgiving Day was celebrated.

The 3-day festival with the Native Wampanoag in Plymouth, Massachusetts celebrated in 1621 was being considered by most citizens of the US as the first-ever celebration of Thanksgiving. However, a traveler during those times will not call the celebration like Thanksgiving. For them, Thanksgiving is of religious substance which involves saying prayers and worshipping.

Based on Pilgrims', the first-ever Thanksgiving celebration had first occurred in the year 1623 in the month of July where Gov. William Bradford had proclaimed Thanksgiving Day as a form of celebration for the coming of the rain which had ended the dreadful drought and also for saving their crops. He had written in his diary his gratitude for the rain which God had given.

In 1962, however, a senator during that time had rejected the idea that the first Thanksgiving had happened in Plymouth during former President John F. Kennedy's speech. The senator claimed that the first Thanksgiving celebration had happened in Virginia during the year 1916.

It is still uncertain when and where the real first Thanksgiving celebration had occurred.

2. The Pilgrims may have eaten corn and not cranberries during the Thanksgiving celebration.

As there are many Thanksgiving trivia, one should take note of the food served during this day. The dishes that were served on the tables for the Thanksgiving celebration during the 1600s were corn, oysters, and deer meat. The deer meat was traditionally brought by the pilgrims as a form of respect for the Indians. 

The turkey may have been part of the feast during that time but it is believed that it was not the center of the feast compared to how it is now. 

According to the diary of Bradford, he spoke of turkey being part of their feast along with other meat dishes. The people in the past had served meats from geese, swan, crane, eagles, and other birds on the dinner table during the celebration of Thanksgiving.

It was presumed that cranberries were not served during the first Thanksgiving dinner with the pilgrims from England because of the need to sweeten it for it to be desirable to eat. 

3. Thanksgiving is not celebrated by everyone.

What's a Thanksgiving without some controversies? The Thanksgiving celebration sometimes gets politicized that sometimes turns to political issues. An example of this was in the year 1976 when Former US President George Washington had announced the first Thanksgiving celebration in the entire country. He had said in his official statement that he is asking all of the Americans to collectively meet on November's last Thursday to express their gratitude for the creating of a government that will give them security and gladness.

Some of the Congress members had rejected to follow his request saying that the authority to declare when Thanksgiving should be celebrated is granted to the leaders of each state and not on the President of the country.