The presidential turkey pardon is an interesting White House
tradition that has captured the attention of the public in recent
years. Live Thanksgiving turkeys have been presented to presidents since
the Lincoln administration. The turkey pardon ceremony has been said to
date back to 1947, when President Harry Truman received a turkey as a
gift from the National Turkey Federation. The Truman Library has been
unable to find any evidence of this.
In
1987, President Ronald Reagan informally issued a "pardon" to a turkey
and sent him to a petting zoo. It wasn't until the first Thanksgiving of
President George H.W. Bush, in 1989, that a turkey was officially
pardoned. Each year since, the President has formally pardoned a turkey
and spares it from ending up on the Thanksgiving table. A pardoning
ceremony is held each year in the White House Rose Garden a day or two before the national holiday.
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