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Thanksgiving
Recess
HFM
BOCES will be closed for Thanksgiving recess Wednesday, Nov. 23
- Friday, Nov. 25. Classes resume Monday, Nov 28.
 FYI,
according to national statistics, 248 million turkeys were
expected to be raised in the US this year, many of which will be
a guest on someone's dinner table Thursday.
That number, by the way, is larger than the population of every
country in the world except the United States, India and China.
Other random Thanksgiving facts:
The
Pilgrims celebrated for three days in 1621, but never called
that "first" gathering Thanksgiving. To them, thanksgiving had
deeply religious meaning and was not a once-a-year occasion.
Nevertheless, they were thankful, mainly for simply surviving
their first year in New England.
That first harvest feast was probably held in October, and not
on our traditional late November date. The remaining 56
Pilgrims—less than half the original number that set out from
England a year earlier—and about 90 Wampanoag, the local native
community that befriended and helped the Plymouth colony,
attended the celebration.
George Washington first officially proclaimed a “National Day of
Thanksgiving” in December 1777 to celebrate the American victory
at Saratoga, but the day did not become a national holiday until
Abraham Lincoln made it so in 1863.3.
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