Many of them wanted to celebrate their new home, but also like bring over some traditions from the old world or other parts of the world they were from and some of these other parts of the world celebrated in the form of parades. People getting together and marching, dressing up, doing all sorts of things, so people would do this, they started organizing Thanksgiving Day parades where they would dress up in costumes, clowns, in uniform, there would be even dancing and other, like arts and crafts going all throughout, parading right through the city. And some of these bigger parades then started adding some floats. You started getting some radio and television coverage, more sponsorship, and it exploded, nowadays to where you have enormous parades on Thanksgiving Day which people across the entire country watch."

Thanksgiving History of Pardoning the National Turkey

每年一度的总统放生火鸡仪式始于1947年杜鲁门总统当政时期。被选中的火鸡可以在农场里自然地生老病死，随心所欲地享受它的生活，没选中的只能成为白宫美味的晚餐了。

Hello, I'm Matt Cail and on behalf of Expert Village, I'm here today to tell you all about the history of Thanksgiving.

Since Thanksgiving became a national holiday, there have been a number of traditions and associated events around it which have kind of popped up, cropped up over the years and decades. One of these is the pardoning of the national turkey.

Now some things are known about this, other things are not. Often times of course we see on television the president pardoning the turkey. This turkey has been allowed to live out a natural life until it's natural demiseon the farm, where it's happy and gets it's fill of eating and doing whatever basically it wants. It lives, it has a very very good life.

But what you don't know is that that is not the only turkey in the process. Generally there are three turkeys. This began in the 1940's to which these three turkeys are presented to the president and the president picks one for pardoning. What happens to the other two? The other two are prepared for the White House Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, that is right. The other two turkeys do not make it. They are found wanting but for definitely, good eating."