Take a short break from pumpkin-spiced lattes and raking leaves, and let’s get warmed up with some November trivia!
1. What year did the U.S. officially proclaim that Thanksgiving should be celebrated on the last Thursday of November?
a. 1795
b. 1815
c. 1863
d. 1921
2. In what state would you find Turkey Run State Park?
a. Kentucky
b. Pennsylvania
c. Virginia
d. Indiana
3. A November 1 tradition is named for this character in the comic strip Li’l Abner, whose father organized a race of single men, ending with her marrying whichever man she caught.
a. Little Lulu
b. Elly May Clampett
c. Sadie Hawkins
d. Honkytonk Sue
4. Which Friends character had this to say about Thanksgiving: “You can’t have Thanksgiving without turkey. That’s like the Fourth of July without apple pie, or Friday with no two pizzas!”
a. Joey
b. Chandler
c. Ross
d. Phoebe
5. On Thanksgiving Day in 1897, two colleges squared off in the first-ever game of American football played in Europe. What country hosted the contest?
a. England
b. Italy
c. Switzerland
d. France
6. When was the term Cyber Monday first used?
a. 1999
b. 2003
c. 2007
d. 2012
7. Who was the first president to introduce pardoning turkeys as an annual White House Thanksgiving tradition?
a. Franklin D. Roosevelt
b. Jimmy Carter
c. George H. W. Bush
d. Barack Obama
8. The haunting song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” memorializes the November 5, 1975, tragedy of a Great Lakes freighter that sank during a severe storm. Which singer-songwriter created and performed it?
a. Bob Dylan
b. Woody Guthrie
c. Joni Mitchell
d. Gordon Lightfoot
9. In bowling, what is a “turkey”?
a. Dropping into the gutters three times in a row
b. Three strikes in a row
c. A perfect game
d. Getting a strike and a spare in three consecutive frames
10. What is the name of a full moon occurring in November?
a. Beaver Moon
b. Pumpkin Moon
c. Harvest Moon
d. Orchard Moon
Answers:
- On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared that Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the last Thursday in November. Congress officially declared in 1941 that the last Thursday in November would be the legal Thanksgiving Day.
- Turkey Run State Park is nestled in a corner of western Indiana. Once called Bloomingdale Glens, the park is expected to have gotten its name from the populations of wild turkeys that frequented the gorges in the area.
- Sadie Hawkins Day is a tradition, primarily associated with school dances, where girls take the initiative and ask boys to be their dates.
- Joey Tribbiani exclaimed this very relatable Thanksgiving quote at the dinner table in “The One with the Thanksgiving Flashbacks”.
- The first college American football game was played in Paris, France, between students from the École des Beaux-Arts and Académie Julian.
- The term “Cyber Monday” was first used by the National Retail Federation in 2005, referencing the Monday after Thanksgiving as a major online marketing trend with special online promotions and discounts.
- George H. W. Bush introduced the tradition of pardoning turkeys at the White House during his presidency. Former president Joe Biden joked that 2024’s pardoned turkeys, Peach and Blossom, have the motto to “keep calm and gobble on.”
- Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” surprised many when it spent 21 weeks on the Billboard Top 40 charts, even though the song was almost twice as long as typical singles.
- In bowling, a turkey refers to rolling three strikes in a row. The term originated from the very beginnings of the sport in the late 1700s, when a turkey would be a common prize for the achievement.
- November’s Beaver Moon is named after the time of the year when beavers were actively preparing for winter, making them easy targets for hunters who would trade their highly coveted pelts.