Thanksgiving trivia is full of rich history and fun facts that span the entire globe. Read or play the below 117 Trivia questions and I guarantee, you and your family will have a blast learning facts about the holiday of Thanksgiving. These 117 Thanksgiving trivia questions include information about the cultures that influenced our American Thanksgiving, as-well-as the international versions that exist across the world.
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Play 117 Thanksgiving Trivia Questions
Playing these Thanksgiving trivia questions with friends and family will be an excellent activity to share during the holidays, while having a little competitive fun around those we care about.
Be safe this holiday season and don’t forget to take time to reflect on what you are grateful for. Happy Thanksgiving!
117 Thanksgiving Trivia Questions & Answers
1. Where did the 1619 event that modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition is traced back to, take place?
Virginia
2. For the 16th and 17th century puritans, special blessings, viewed as coming from God, called for what?
Days of Thanksgiving
3. Thanksgiving began as a day of giving thanks and sacrifice for the previous year, as-well-as what?
The Harvest
4. When is Thanksgiving celebrated in Canada?
The Second Monday of October
5. What is the name of the Thanksgiving festival that is celebrated in Rwanda on the First Friday of August?
Umuganura Day
6. The Thanksgiving holiday history in North America is rooted in English traditions from which religious Reformation?
Protestant
7. In what year did the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade begin?
1924
8. In what year did the English reformation begin?
1536
9. According to some historians, the Pilgrims may have been influenced by watching the annual services of Thanksgiving for what?
The Relief of the Siege of Leiden
10. When is Thanksgiving celebrated in the United States?
The Fourth Thursday of November
11. When did the practice of holding an annual Thanksgiving harvest festival become a regular affair in New England?
The 1660s
12. Which historic event shifted most Thanksgiving proclamations, from the church to political leaders?
The American Revolutions
13. Which two states in the US have historically been at odds over where the first Thanksgiving was held?
New England and Virginia
14. In what year did the Gimbels Department Store sponsor the first, and what would become the oldest, Thanksgiving Day parade in the United States?
1920
15. In England in the 20th century during Samhain, pranksters would hollow out turnips or mangel wurzels carved with grotesque faces, to use as what?
Lanterns
16. In what year did Canada finally have a fixed date for Thanksgiving?
1872
17. Where do some historians argue, that the earliest Thanksgiving service was celebrated, by the Spanish community on September 8, 1565?
Saint Augustine, Florida
18. What unusual annual Day of Thanksgiving began in 1606 following the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605?
Guy Fawkes Night
19. In what year did the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade suspend because rubber and helium were needed for the war efforts?
1942
20. Which department store started America’s Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit?
The J. L. Hudson Company
21. Who had set the final Thursday in November as the customary date for thanksgiving in the U.S?
Abraham Lincoln
22. The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving are sometimes traced back to which 17th century settlers during the 17th century?
The French
23. Days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important to the English Reformation during the reign of which king?
Henry VIII
24. What is the name of the annual Dutch festival held in Leiden during the days leading up to October 3rd?
Oktoberfeest
25. In what year did U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sign a joint resolution of Congress changing the national Thanksgiving Day to the fourth Thursday in November?
1941
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26. Who were the 16th and 17th century English Protestants that sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices?
The Puritans
27. Which President of the United States, proclaimed the first nationwide Thanksgiving celebration in America?
George Washington
28. In the West African country of Liberia, when is their Thanksgiving celebrated?
The First Thursday of November
29. What was the name of the ship the Pilgrims emigrated to North America on during the 17th century?
The Mayflower
30. Since 1971, when the American Uniform Monday Holiday Act took effect, which American holiday has coincided with the Canadian observance of Thanksgiving?
Columbus Day
31. Besides the United States, which country celebrates Thanksgiving as a national holiday?
Liberia
32. In which Australian external territory is Thanksgiving celebrated on the last Wednesday of November?,
Norfolk Island
33. When is Thanksgiving celebrated in Liberia?
The 1st Thursday in November
34. For the 16th and 17th century puritans, unexpected disasters or threats of judgement from on high called for what?
Days of Fasting
35. Which President instituted a National Thanksgiving Day in Brazil?
President Gaspar Dutra
36. What is another name for the annual Dutch festival, Oktoberfeest?
Oktober
37. In 1966, which Brazilian law established that the Thanksgiving celebration would take place on the fourth Thursday of November?
Law 5110
38. Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in all provinces of Canada, except for which two?
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
39. According to some historians, in what year did the first celebration of Thanksgiving in North America occur?
1578
40. In what year did the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade resume, after its initial suspension due to the rubber and helium required for war efforts?
1945
41. On what date is the national holiday of Thanksgiving Day celebrated on the West Indian island of Grenada?
October 25th
42. Before the 1536 English reformation, how many church holidays were there?
95 Church Holidays
43. What was the name of the North American colony the Pilgrims settled during the 17th century?
Plymouth Colony
44. In the West African country of Liberia, the Thanksgiving tradition there is rooted in the nation’s founding as a colony by which group?
The American Colonization Society
45. Which residential neighborhood in Brooklyn renamed a street “Ragamuffin Way” in honor of the neighborhood’s 50-year-old tradition, which as part of Thanksgiving, involved candy seeking children going door-to-door dressed as New York City beggars?
Bay Ridge
46. What is the name of the practice of looking into a suitable medium, in the hope of detecting significant messages or visions?
Scrying
47. Who influenced Abraham Lincoln to declare an official U.S. date for Thanksgiving, writing letters to politicians for approximately 40 years advocating for an official holiday?
Sarah Josepha Hale
48. What is the name of the church in Leiden, Netherlands, where a non-denominational Thanksgiving Day service is held each year on the morning of American Thanksgiving Day?
Pieterskerk
49. In Brazil, National Thanksgiving Day was instituted by President Gaspar Dutra, through what law on August 17, 1949?
Law 781
50. What were the majority of the early Church of England Separatists who were aboard the mayflower called?
Brownists
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51. After World War II, until what year did the the Philippines celebrate Thanksgiving on the same day as Americans?
1969
52. In late 19th century Canada, what would the Militia do for public entertainment on Thanksgiving Day?
Stage “Sham Battles”
53. Besides the United States, which country celebrates Thanksgiving as a national holiday?
Canada
54. What date did President Ferdinand Marcos change the Thanksgiving day holiday to in the Philippines?
September 21st
55. According to some historians, whose 1578 exploratory voyage marked the first celebration of Thanksgiving in North America?
Martin Frobisher
56. The first official Canadian Thanksgiving occurred on April 15, 1872, when the nation was celebrating whose recovery from a serious illness?
Prince of Wales’ Edward the VII
57. Where is the annual Bayou Classic Thanksgiving Parade held?
New Orleans
58. When is the Thanksgiving festival, that marks the start of the harvest, celebrated in Rwanda?
The First Friday of August
59. What is another name for the annual Dutch festival, Oktoberfeest?
Leidens Ontzet
60. Who were 17th century Brownists named after?
Robert Browne
61. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was known nationwide shortly after having been prominently featured in which 1947 film?
Miracle on 34th Street
62. Which US President attempted to strike a compromise between New England and Virginia’s regional Thanksgiving origination claims, by issuing Proclamation 3560?
John F. Kennedy
63. Since what year has Thanksgiving been an annual tradition in the United States, by presidential proclamation?
1863
64. What is commemorated on Grenada’s Thanksgiving Day holiday?
The Freeing of Several Political Prisoners
65. What kind of visiting American ships brought Thanksgiving to Norfolk Island, Australia?
Whaling Ships
66. Which annual Thanksgiving day parade is the world’s largest parade?
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
67. In what year did President Gaspar Dutra institute a new law to declare a Brazilian national Thanksgiving holiday?
1949
68. Besides the United States, which country celebrates Thanksgiving as a national holiday?
Saint Lucia
69. Most of the U.S. aspects of Thanksgiving were incorporated into Canadian tradition when which group of people left the United States during the American Revolution to settle in Canada?
United Empire Loyalists
70. Which parade is tied with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States?
America’s Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit
71. What were the 16th and 17th century Puritan’s hoping to eliminate all together?
Religious Holidays
72. The American tradition of carving pumpkins had not been specifically associated with Halloween until what century?
The 19th Century
73. What is the oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States currently called?
6abc Dunkin’ Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade
74. What was the name of the North American territory French settlers predominantly migrated to during the 17th century?
New France
75. After what period of American history, following the Civil War, was a nationwide Thanksgiving realized?
The Reconstruction Era
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76. What is the name of the tradition, which as part of Thanksgiving, involved children going door-to-door seeking candy, dressed as beggars and homeless residents of New York?
Ragamuffin Day
77. When does the nation of Saint Lucia celebrate Thanksgiving?
The First Monday of October
78. Which President of the Philippines revived the country’s Thanksgiving day holiday, until it ended in 1986?
Ferdinand Marcos
79. Where was 17th century English Separatist Robert Browne born?
Rutland, England
80. Which department store sponsored the first, and what would become the oldest, Thanksgiving Day parade in the United States?
The Gimbels Department Store
81. How many towns in the United States are named “Turkey”?
Four
82. In what year did the first Mickey Mouse Ballon enter the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?
1934
83. Besides the United States, which country celebrates Thanksgiving as a national holiday?
Grenada
84. Who has traditionally led the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade since 1985?
New York City Police Department Highway Patrol
85. As of 2020, what chain of malls led the way in reviving Thanksgiving as a commercial and cultural holiday in the Philippines, by offering special promotions and sales?
SM Supermalls
86. What was used in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, prior to balloons?
Zoo Animals
87. Which Act of United States Congress moved the federal holidays of Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, and Labor Day permanently to a Monday?
The Uniform Monday Holiday Act
88. In what year were balloons introduced into the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?
1928
89. What was Martin Frobisher in search of on his 1578 voyage from England?
The Northwest Passage
90. Which American company produced the large animal-shaped balloons for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from the 1920s through the 1980s?
The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
91. How many people handle the larger and more popular, licensed pop-culture characters in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?
90
92. What is the name of the third balloon class from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which from 2005 to 2012, and then resuming in 2018, transformed the works of contemporary artists into full-size balloons?
The Blue Sky Gallery
93. What is the name of the self-powered balloon vehicles that were introduced in the 2004 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?
A Balloonicle
94. What type of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons depict children’s cartoons?
Character Balloons
95. After the 1536 English reformation, how many church holidays were there?
27 Church Holidays
96. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade ends with whose arrival?
Santa Clause
97. After Gimbels went under in 1986, which family-owned department store took over sponsorship of and renamed the Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade?
Boscov’s
98. Which television network has been the official broadcaster of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade since 1953?
NBC
99. In the late 19th century Canada, Thanksgiving Day was normally celebrated on what date?
November 6th
100. Which current host of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has helped host the event since 1995?
Al Roker
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101. In which New York borough has the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade always been held?
Manhattan
102. When is Thanksgiving celebrated on Norfolk Island?
The Last Wednesday in November
103. Where is the McDonald’s Thanksgiving Day Parade held annually?
Chicago, Illinois
104. Days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important to the English Reformation during the reign of Henry VIII and were in essence, a reaction to the large number of religious holidays of which denomination?
Catholicism
105. In what year was the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade televised?
1948
106. Which American manufacturing company made the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons from 1984 to 2019?
Raven Industries
107. Which Thanksgiving Balloon Parade is held in Stamford, Connecticut, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, so as not to compete with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City?
The UBS Balloon Parade
108. What is the name of the first day after Thanksgiving Day which marks the start of the Christmas shopping season?
Black Friday
109. Which Governor planned the Massachusetts colony’s Thanksgiving celebration and feast in 1623?
Governor Bradford
110. The vast 1712 territory of New France consisted of how many colonies during its peak?
Five
111. Which Canadian holiday caused Parliament to move Thanksgiving to the second Monday of October, out fear the two holidays would clash?
Armistice Day
112. Who made most Thanksgiving proclamations in New England up until 1682?
Church Leaders
113. What is the name of the country house where Robert Brown was born, in the parish of Little Casterton, Rutland?
Sandringham House
114. Which U.S. president signed a presidential proclamation on October 31st, 1939, changing Thanksgiving’s date from the last, to the second to last Thursday in November?
Franklin D. Roosevelt
115. What is the name of the annual Thanksgiving Day Balloon Parade is held in Philadelphia?
6abc Dunkin’ Thanksgiving Day Parade
116. Who suggested to President Gaspar Dutra to declare an official Brazilian Thanksgiving holiday?
Ambassador Joaquim Nabuco
117. What is the name of the annual Thanksgiving Day Ballon Parade held in Plymouth Massachusetts?
America’s Hometown Thanksgiving Parade
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