Why Is Thanksgiving on a Thursday?
Thanksgiving has been a Thursday since George Washington's day, and once caused a political fight over which Thursday. Here's how the date was set.
Americans have gathered for Thanksgiving dinner on the fourth Thursday of November since 1942. But the Thursday habit goes back much further, and the exact date was once so controversial that people called it "Franksgiving."
The early thanksgivings
The feast most people picture took place in 1621, when the Plymouth colonists and members of the Wampanoag people shared a harvest celebration over several days. In colonial New England, though, a "thanksgiving" usually meant a special day of prayer, announced whenever there was something to be thankful for, such as a good harvest or the end of a drought.
Those days were often held on a Thursday. One common explanation is that Thursday was a traditional day for church lectures in New England, and a midweek day kept clear of the Sunday Sabbath and its preparations.
Washington and Lincoln
In 1789, President George Washington proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving for Thursday, November 26. After that, the day was declared from time to time, on different dates, by presidents and state governors.
The holiday we know owes a lot to Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor who spent years writing letters urging a fixed national Thanksgiving. In 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving, and presidents kept that date for decades.
The "Franksgiving" fight
In 1939, November had five Thursdays, so the last one fell on November 30. Retailers worried about a short holiday shopping season, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving a week earlier. The change caused an uproar. Some states followed the president and others refused, so for two years Americans celebrated on different days, and critics nicknamed the new date "Franksgiving."
In 1941, Congress settled the matter with a law fixing Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November, which took effect the next year.
Canada does it differently
Canadian Thanksgiving falls on the second Monday of October, closer to the harvest in a colder climate. Many Canadians still eat their big meal on the weekend before.
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