30 Thanksgiving Trivia Questions and Answers for Seniors

1. In March 1621, Plymouth's colonists and the Wampanoag leader Ousamequin (Massasoit) agreed to what?

2. Samoset, the first Native man to greet the Plymouth colonists in English, belonged to which nation?

3. Which Plymouth colonist served as the colony's military leader?

4. In which year did editor Sarah Josepha Hale begin her sustained campaign for a national Thanksgiving holiday?

5. Which Mayflower passenger survived being swept overboard by grabbing a trailing rope?

6. Which famous nursery rhyme was written by Thanksgiving campaigner Sarah Josepha Hale?

7. In which year did New York begin its annual state Thanksgiving tradition?

8. What were the Wampanoag dugout boats, made by burning and scraping out a log, called?

9. Edward Winslow, who described the 1621 harvest, later held which office more than once?

10. What is the title of William Bradford's famous history of the Plymouth colony?

11. Who was the first governor of Plymouth Colony, before William Bradford took over in 1621?

12. Which smaller ship was meant to sail with the Mayflower in 1620 but turned back because it kept leaking?

13. About how long did the Mayflower's 1620 voyage across the Atlantic take?

14. What was the name of the Mayflower's master, the captain who sailed her across the Atlantic?

15. In which year did Congress pass the law fixing Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November?

16. According to an 1865 news account, which president's young son, Tad, begged him to spare a turkey bought for a holiday dinner?

17. The word 'squash' comes from a word in which Native language of New England?

18. The word 'pumpkin' traces back to an ancient Greek word meaning what?

19. Hominy is made by soaking dried kernels of which crop in an alkaline solution?

20. Which turkey variety is the one raised on most commercial farms?

21. The wild turkey belongs to the same bird order as which barnyard bird?

22. Turkeys first reached Europe in the 1500s on ships from which country?

23. Why did English speakers name the American bird 'turkey'?

24. When a male turkey puffs his feathers, fans his tail and drags his wings to impress hens, what is that display called?

25. Why do migrating geese often fly in a V formation?

26. Which pigments give autumn leaves, such as maple's, their red and purple colors?

27. Lammas, an old English harvest day on August 1, gets its name from which Old English phrase?

28. Every year on U.S. Thanksgiving morning, a service is held in the Pieterskerk, a historic church in which city?

29. Pongal, a harvest festival celebrated by Tamil communities each January, takes its name from a word meaning what?

30. In what month of 1620 did the Mayflower first reach Cape Cod?