The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada is a large meal, starring a large roasted turkey. All of the dishes in a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner are made from foods native to North America, the Pilgrims having received these foods from the Indians.

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Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

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The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, usually the "Macy's Day Parade" in informal contexts, and originally the "Macy's Christmas Parade," is an annual parade presented by Macy's Department Store. The three-hour event is held in New York City starting at 9:00 a.m. EST Thanksgiving Day on NBC.

In 2006, to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the first parade, Macy*s began a coast-to-coast "Parade on Parade" interactive tour on September 6th in Detroit, as Macy*s officially bacame a nationally branded department store chain. The interactive tours includes a school for balloon flying, dressing as a clown, float escort or balloon handler, a musical revue on how balloons are made to fly, a "Miracle on 34th Street Theatre" among other activities. It is scheduled to conclude the day before the parade (November 22) at the annual Balloon Inflation at the Museum of Natural History at Central Park West, but the final official stop will be December 5 in Atlanta. It plans to also have the first "Macy*s All American Band" made up of high school band members from all 50 states.

Parade Route

* The Parade starts at the American Museum of Natural History, on 77th and 81st Sts. at Central Park West. It heads south alongside Central Park. The balloons are held close to the ground, to avoid trees and crosswinds as much as possible. At Columbus Circle (on the southwest corner of Central Park), the parade turns onto Broadway.

* At this point, the balloons are raised to their full height. The Parade continues southeast, through Times Square, to the Macy's building at Herald Square (where Broadway intersects with 34th St. and the Avenue of the Americas).

* There's a right turn onto 34th St, and another right onto 7th Ave, where the balloons and floats are taken down and packed up.

Economy The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that New Mexico's total state product in 2003 was $57 billion. Per capital personal income in 2003 was $24,995, 48th in the nation. Cattle and dairy products top the list of major animal products of New Mexico. Cattle, sheep, and other livestock graze most of the arable land of the state throughout the year. Limited but scientifically controlled dryland farming prospers alongside cattle ranching. Major crops include hay, nursery stock, pecans, and chile peppers. Hay and sorghum top the list of major dryland crops. Farmers also produce onions, potatoes, and dairy products. New Mexico specialty crops include piñon nuts, pinto beans, and chiles. In the desert and semiarid portions of the state, the scant rainfall evaporates rapidly, generally leaving insufficient water supplies for large-scale irrigation. The Carlsbad and Fort Sumner reclamation projects on the Pecos River and the nearby Tucumcari project provide adequate water for limited irrigation in those areas. Located upstream of Las Cruces, the Elephant Butte Reservoir provides a major irrigation source for the extensive farming along the Rio Grande. Other irrigation projects use the Colorado River basin and the San Juan River. Lumber mills in Albuquerque process pinewood, the chief commercial wood of the rich timber economy of northern New Mexico. New Mexicans derive much of their income from mineral extraction. Even before European exploration, Native Americans mined turquoise for making jewelry. After the Spanish introduced refined silver alloys they were incorporated into the Indian jewelry designs. New Mexico produces uranium ore, manganese ore, potash, salt, perlite, copper ore, beryllium, and tin concentrates. Natural gas, petroleum, and coal are also found in smaller quantities. Industrial outputs, centered around Albuquerque, include electric equipment; petroleum and coal products; food processing; printing and publishing; and stone, glass, and clay products. Defense-related industries include ordnance. Important high-technology industries include lasers, data processing, and solar energy. Federal government spending is a major driver of the New Mexico economy and provides more than a quarter of the state's jobs. Many of the federal jobs relate to the military; the state hosts three air force bases (Kirtland Air Force Base, Holloman Air Force Base, and Cannon Air Force Base); a testing range (White Sands Missile Range); an army proving ground and maneuver range (Fort Bliss Military Reservation - McGregor Range);national observatories; and the technology labs of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). SNL conducts electronic and industrial research next to Kirtland AFB, on the southeast side of Albuquerque. These installations also include the missile and spacecraft proving grounds at White Sands. In addition to the military employers, other federal agencies such as the National Park Service, the United States Forest Service, and the United States Bureau of Land Management are a big part of the states rural employment base. Virgin Galactic, the first company to develop commercial flights into space, has decided to put its world headquarters and mission control in southern New Mexico (25 miles or 40 km south of Truth or Consequences). Tourism provides many service jobs. The private service economy in urban New Mexico has boomed in recent decades. Since the end of World War II, Albuquerque has gained an ever-growing number of retirees, especially among armed forces veterans and government workers. The city is also increasingly gaining notoriety as a health conscious community, and contains many hospitals and a high per capita number of massage and alternative therapists. The warm, semiarid climate has contributed to the exploding population of Albuquerque, attracting new industries to New Mexico. By contrast, many heavily Native American and Hispanic rural communities remain economically underdeveloped. The personal income tax rates for New Mexico range from 1.7 percent to 5.3 percent, within 4 income brackets. New Mexico does not have a sales tax. Instead, it has a 5 percent gross receipts tax. In almost every case, the business passes along the tax to the consumer, so that the gross receipts tax resembles a sales tax. The combined gross receipts tax rate varies throughout the state from 5.125 percent to 7.8125 percent. The total rate is a combination of all rates imposed by the state, counties and municipalities. Beginning Jan. 1, 2005, New Mexicans no longer pay taxes on most food purchases; however, there are exceptions to this program. Also beginning Jan. 1, 2005, the state eliminated the tax on certain medical services. In general, taxes are not assessed on personal property. Personal household effects, licensed vehicles, registered aircraft, certain personal property warehoused in the state and business personal property that is not depreciated for federal income tax purposes are exempt from the property tax. Property tax rates vary substantially and depend on the type of property and its location. The state does not assess tax on intangible personal property. There is no inheritance tax, but an inheritance may be reflected in a taxpayer's modified gross income and taxed that way. Largest employers (Not ranked by size) Northern * College of Santa Fe * Boy Scouts of America * U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) * Mesa Air Group * Navajo Nation * Los Alamos National Laboratory Central * PNM Resources and PNM Electric & Gas Services * Presbyterian Health Plan * Sandia National Laboratories * Intel * University of New Mexico * New Mexico State Government Eastern * Albertson's Supermarket * Kmart Corporation * U.S. Postal Service * Wal-Mart * Navajo Refining Company * U.S. National Park Service (NPS) * Allsup's Convenience Stores * Southwestern * Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) * Lockheed Engineering and Sciences * New Mexico State University * Lovelace Healthcare * Pepsi Bottling * New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology * U.S. Army (Fort Bliss) Source: Economic Research & Analysis Bureau New Mexico Department of Labor State symbols State motto "Crescit eundo" ("It Grows as It Goes") 1912 State nicknames "Land of Enchantment" (Spanish: "Tierra de Encanto" or "Tierra Encantada") 19_? "The Colorful State" 19_? State songs "O Fair New Mexico" 1917 "Asi Es Nuevo México" 1971 "New Mexico-Mi Lindo Nuevo México" 1995 State flower Yucca flower 1927 State tree Two-Needle Piñon pine 1949 State bird Greater roadrunner 1949 State fish Cutthroat trout 1955 State animal black bear 1963 State vegetables chile and frijol 1965 State gem turquoise 1967 State grass blue grama 1973 State fossil coelophysis 1981 State cookie bizcochito 1989 State insect tarantula hawk 1989 State ballad "Land of Enchantment" 1989 State poem A Nuevo México 1991 State question * "Red or Green?" 1999 State ship "USS New Mexico (BB-40)" 1918–1946 "USS New Mexico (SSN-779)" **2006 (*)The official state question refers to a question commonly heard at restaurants, where waiters will ask customers "red or green?" in reference to which kind of chile pepper or "chile sauce" the customers want served with their meal. This type of "chile" is usually distinct from salsa, as the chile sauce is much finer and thicker and more commonly served with meals. Natives are more likely to refer to the chile sauce put on their meal as just plain "chile", and not as any form of "salsa" (which is usually reserved by natives in English for the salsa served with chips; everything else is just "chile"). If the diner wants both they can answer with, "Christmas" (or "Navidad" in Spanish), in reference to the two traditional colors of Christmas—Red and Green. However, most natives simply say, "both". (**)The second USS New Mexico, SSN-779, is scheduled to be constructed. In 1947, a craft of unknown origin crashed at or near Roswell, New Mexico. Allegedly, in 1949, another craft of unknown origin crashed near this city. Source: Wikipedia.org - English