Setting aside a day to give thanks began in the 1600s after the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth, off of Cape Cod. The first celebration of thanksgiving lasted three days and took place after the autumn harvest. Colonists and Native American Indians played games, feasted, and demonstrated their respective skills with muskets and bows and arrows.

While a day of thanksgiving was celebrated annually since that time, George Washington gave the first Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln gave two Thanksgiving Proclamations, the first for victory in battle, and the second one on October 3rd, for thanks for blessings of the year. Since that time, every U.S. president has issued an annual Thanksgiving Day Proclamation including the Proclamation on November 16, 2006, by President George W. Bush.

Part of the president’s Thanksgiving duties is to “pardon” the National Thanksgiving Turkey. Once pardoned, the turkey and its alternative goes to Disneyland. The tradition of allowing the National Thankgiving Turkey to live out its life instead of being the centerpiece at a Thankgiving dinner began in 1947 with President Harry Truman.

Once pardoned, the turkeys will serve as honorary Grand Marshals at Disneyland’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and then they join previous pardoned birds living at the Anaheim, California, theme park.