President Biden is ready to have a good time his 81st birthday on the White House on Monday by honoring a Thanksgiving custom.
Biden, the oldest president in U.S. historical past, will be part of first woman Jill Biden Monday afternoon for the presidential pardons of Liberty and Bell, two Thanksgiving turkeys that shall be spared from turning into somebody’s dinner. Later, the Bidens will proceed vacation festivities by accepting the supply of the official White House Christmas tree – an 18-and-a-half foot Fraser fir from Fleetwood, North Carolina.
The occasion marks the unofficial begin of the vacation season within the nation’s capital and shall be held on the South Lawn this yr as a substitute of the Rose Garden.
From there, Biden will eat his Thanksgiving turkey along with his household on Nantucket, a Massachusetts island, persevering with an extended household custom.
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President Biden will have a good time his 81st birthday on Monday by pardoning two turkeys, Liberty and Bell, from turning into somebody’s Thanksgiving dinner. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP through Getty Images)
Liberty and Bell shall be spared in a practice that dates again to 1947, when the National Turkey Federation, which represents turkey farmers and producers, first offered a National Thanksgiving Turkey to President Harry Truman.
Back then, and in previous Thanksgivings, a turkey was given to the primary household for his or her consumption on the vacation, however by the late Nineteen Eighties, the custom had advanced into an typically humorous ceremony by which the birds are pardoned.
Two turkeys, named Liberty and Bell, will attend the annual presidential pardon on the White House forward of Thanksgiving. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Liberty and Bell had been launched on Sunday at luxurious resort Willard Intercontinental, which is near the White House. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“We think that’s a great way to kick off the holiday season and really, really a fun honor,” Steve Lykken, chairman of the National Turkey Federation and president of the Jennie-O Turkey Store, mentioned in an interview with The Associated Press.
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Lykken launched Liberty and Bell on Sunday on the Willard Intercontinental, a luxurious resort near the White House. They had been checked into a collection there on Saturday following their dayslong highway journey from Minnesota.
The male turkeys, each about 20 weeks outdated and about 42 kilos, had been hatched in July in Willmar, Minnesota. After Biden pardons his third pair of turkeys on Monday, Liberty and Bell shall be returned to their residence state to be cared for by the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences.
“They were raised like all of our turkeys, protected, of course, from weather extremes and predators, free to walk about with constant access to water and feed,” Lykken mentioned Sunday.
President Biden will pardon Liberty and Bell earlier than accepting the official White House Christmas tree later within the day. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP through Getty Images)
Markus Platzer, the Willard’s common supervisor, referred to as the turkeys “very special guests of ours” and mentioned the resort’s involvement is its “highlight of the year.” The Willard has housed turkeys for such occasions for greater than 15 years, he mentioned.
“There are so many bad things going on globally that this is something where everybody, you know, brings a smile [to] the face of the people, at least for a few minutes,” Platzer mentioned Sunday.
On Sunday, he and the primary woman served an early Thanksgiving meal to a whole lot of service members from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS Gerald R. Ford at Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia, the most important set up of its variety on the planet.
President Biden, chef Robert Irvine, and first woman Jill Biden serve Thanksgiving meals to service members and army households from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS Gerald R. Ford on the Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Co-hosted by the USO and the Robert Irvine Foundation, President Biden and the primary woman host Naval households previous to the Thanksgiving vacation. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
More than 200 million turkeys shall be eaten on Thanksgiving, Lykken mentioned.
Biden was born on Nov. 20, 1942.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-celebrate-81st-birthday-honoring-white-house-thanksgiving-tradition
