Test your Thanksgiving knowledge

Thanksgiving on the Kansas plains has always been about tradition.

Chances are the meals prepared by Kansans in 2014 vary little in tradition from the ones prepared by Kansans more than 150 years ago or, for that matter, from the one early Americans served when the first national Thanksgiving was declared in 1777 by the Continental Congress.

A New England woman helped define what America’s traditional Thanksgiving meal would be. Sarah Hale, the editor of the monthly magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book, started a 19th-century campaign offering women recipes based on her own family Thanksgiving traditions. The Daughters of the American Revolution picked up Hale’s efforts by going into schools and telling children how families should celebrate Thanksgiving.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as the annual Thanksgiving observance. Until then, it was unusual for Kansans to observe the holiday, unless they had New England ties.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the next-to-last Thursday of the month as Thanksgiving to give an added boost to the economy by offering an added week for Christmas shoppers. In 1941, Congress permanently established the holiday as the fourth Thursday in November.

After the Civil War, celebrating Thanksgiving became an American tradition and almost a must for immigrants to “prove” their Americanism.

The following is a quiz of Kansas-related Thanksgiving Day celebrations.

This story was originally published November 25, 2014 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Test your Thanksgiving knowledge."