See the Evolution of the Presidential Turkey Pardon

President Obama will spare the lives of two turkeys for his final presidential pardon ceremony on Nov. 23, 2016. The annual ceremony, in which the president symbolically saves at least one turkey from being killed for a holiday feast, has become a Thanksgiving tradition—but it’s unclear just how the tradition got started.

According to the White House, president Lincoln supposedly gave mercy to a Christmas turkey after his son Tad begged him not to kill it.