Thanksgiving Day, annual national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Sarah Josepha Hale campaigned for a national thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. during the 19th century, eventually winning Pres. Colonists in New England and Canada regularly observed “thanksgivings,” days of prayer for such blessings as safe journeys, military victories, or abundant harvests. In the West Indian island of Grenada, in the Caribbean, there is a national holiday known as Thanksgiving Day which is celebrated on October 25. When Christianity arrived in Britain many traditions remained, and today the Harvest Festival is marked by churches and schools in late September/early October (same as Canada) with singing, praying and decorating with baskets of food and fruit to celebrate a successful harvest and to give thanks. Although the original act of Parliament references God and the holiday is celebrated in churches, the holiday is mostly celebrated in a secular manner.
Thanksgiving 2025: Dates, Traditions, and Recipes
Some state governors went along with the change while others stuck with the original November 30 date for the holiday, and three states — Colorado, Mississippi, and Texas — observed both dates. The final Thursday in November had become the customary date in most U.S. states by the beginning of the 19th century, coinciding with, and eventually superseding the holiday of Evacuation Day (commemorating the day the British exited the United States after the Revolutionary War). However, when the First World War ended, the Armistice Day holiday was usually held during the same week. The militia agitated for an earlier date for the holiday, so they could use the warmer weather to draw bigger crowds. Prior to Canadian Confederation, many of the individual colonial governors of the Canadian provinces had declared their own days of Thanksgiving.
But not all states complied, and, after a joint resolution of Congress in 1941, Roosevelt issued a proclamation in 1942 designating the fourth Thursday in November (which is not always the last Thursday) as Thanksgiving Day. While sectional tensions prevailed in the mid-19th century, the editor of the popular magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book, Sarah Josepha Hale, campaigned for a national Thanksgiving Day to promote unity. A national Thanksgiving Day seemed more like a lightning rod for controversy than a unifying force. The U.S. Continental Congress proclaimed a national Thanksgiving upon the enactment of the Constitution, for example.
When the harvest was finally collected, communities would come together for a harvest supper. During the Japanese occupation in World War II, both Americans and Filipinos celebrated Thanksgiving in secret. The festival has a significant religious component, and many churches are decorated with autumn crops. The Harvest Thanksgiving Festival, Erntedankfest, is a popular Christian festival in some German municipalities on the first Sunday of October. Since 1971, when the American Uniform Monday Holiday Act took effect, the American observance of Columbus Day has coincided with the Canadian observance of Thanksgiving.
Why Thanksgiving falls on the 4th Thursday of November
- In the United States, Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, as specified in a joint resolution passed by Congress in 1941 and a proclamation issued by Pres.
- Today, folks celebrate Thanksgiving for a multitude of reasons.
- Of course, Thanksgiving was not born of presidential proclamations.
- And the president of the United States and some U.S. governors will often “pardon” one or two Thanksgiving turkeys each year.
- In 1966, Law 5110 established that the Thanksgiving celebration would take place on the fourth Thursday of November.
Americans model their holiday on a 1621 harvest feast shared between the Wampanoag people and the English colonists known as Pilgrims. Even though it bears the same name, and is celebrated at roughly the same time as the American and Canadian versions of Thanksgiving, this holiday is unrelated to either of those celebrations. The holiday traditionally has been a celebration of the blessings of the year, including the harvest. An annual thanksgiving holiday tradition in North American colonies is documented for the first time in 1619, in what is now called the Commonwealth of Virginia. Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus every Sunday, when people were required to attend church and forego work.
It was a celebratory feast hosted by Pilgrims who invited their Native American allies in sincere gratitude for a successful harvest after much starvation. Based on historical records, the shared feast between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people was bountiful and peaceful. It was the tail end of the Depression, and Roosevelt’s goal was to create more shopping days before Christmas and boost the economy. The first national Thanksgiving Day celebration was observed in honor of the creation of the new United States Constitution! In 1619, British settlers proclaimed a day of thanksgiving when they reached a site known as Berkeley Hundred on the banks of Virginia’s James River. And the president of the United States and some U.S. governors will often “pardon” one or two Thanksgiving turkeys each year.
Frequently Asked Questions About Thanksgiving
Franklin D. Roosevelt, however, attempted to extend the Christmas shopping season, which generally begins with the Thanksgiving holiday, and to boost the economy by moving the date back a week, to the third week in November. The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating “Thanksgivings,” days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought. Nevertheless, over the next few days the two groups socialized without incident. Thanksgiving is a day when families and friends gather to express gratitude for the year’s blessings over a shared feast. Since 1957 Thanksgiving Day has been celebrated in Canada on the second Monday in October.
How Did the Pilgrims Come to Settle Here?
The double Thanksgiving continued for two more years, and then on December 26, 1941, Roosevelt signed a joint resolution of Congress changing the official national Thanksgiving Day to the fourth Thursday in November starting in 1942 (there are usually four but sometimes five Thursdays in November, depending on the year). From the time of the Founding Fathers until Abraham Lincoln made it a national holiday in 1863, the date of observance varied from state to state. The thanksgiving at St. Augustine was celebrated 56 years before the Puritan Pilgrim thanksgiving at Plymouth Plantation (Massachusetts), but it did not become the origin of a national annual tradition. A multi-day festival in 1621 in Plymouth Colony was prompted by a good harvest, though it was not at the time described as a thanksgiving. They brought their previous tradition of days of humiliation and thanksgiving (both of which involved fasting) with them to New England. Though the 1536 reforms in the Church of England reduced the number of holidays in the liturgical calendar to 27, the Puritan party in the Anglican Church wished to eliminate all Church holidays apart from the weekly Lord’s Day, including the evangelical feasts of Christmas and Easter (cf. Puritan Sabbatarianism).
When Is Thanksgiving Day 2025?
The landing was immediately followed by a religious celebration, specifically dictated by the group’s charter from the London Company. Most of the U.S. aspects of Thanksgiving (such as the turkey) were incorporated when United Empire Loyalists began to flee from the United States during and after the American Revolution and settled in Canada. As settlers arrived in Nova Scotia from New England after 1700, late autumn Thanksgiving celebrations became commonplace. They continued throughout the winter season, even sharing food with the indigenous peoples of the area. Other researchers, however, state that “there is no compelling narrative of the origins of the Canadian Thanksgiving day.” According to some historians, the first celebration of Thanksgiving in North America occurred during the 1578 voyage of Martin Frobisher from England in search of the Northwest Passage.
- In 1920 Gimbel’s department store in Philadelphia staged a parade of about 50 people with Santa Claus at the rear of the procession.
- As the country became more urban and family members began to live farther apart, Thanksgiving became a time to gather together.
- The Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts, had their Thanksgiving feast in 1621 with the Wampanoag Native Americans.
Thanksgiving Day is a federal holiday in the United States. Thanksgiving Day in the United States is a holiday on the fourth Thursday of November. The earliest celebration took place in 1578, when an expedition led by Martin Frobisher held a ceremony in present-day Nunavut to give thanks for the safety of its fleet. Thanksgiving Day football games, beginning with Yale versus Princeton in 1876, enabled fans to add some rowdiness to the holiday.
Thanksgiving Weather Folklore
What’s up in the day and night sky in December 2025, including the Geminid meteor shower and the December solstice. However, their first true thanksgiving was in 1623, when they gave thanks for rain that ended a drought. American Indian Heritage Day is also observed at this time of the year. However, not everyone sees Thanksgiving Day as a cause for celebration. Public transit systems usually do not operate on their regular timetables. Some schools and businesses may also be closed on this day.
Read about Sarah Josepha Hale, the “Godmother of Thanksgiving,” who helped turn this historic feast into a national holiday. In 1941, to end any confusion, the president and Congress established Thanksgiving as a United States federal holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, which is how it stands today! And well after the Pilgrims, for more than two centuries, individual colonies and states celebrated days of thanksgiving. Native American cultures, too, have a rich tradition of giving thanks at harvesttime feasts, which began long before Europeans appeared on their soil.
The practice of holding an annual harvest festival did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s. Along with the last surviving Patuxet, the Wampanoag had helped them get through the previous winter by giving them food in that time of scarcity, in exchange for an alliance and protection against the rival Narragansett tribe. The Wampanoag, who had a mutual defense treaty with the colonists, responded in alarm to sounds of ceremonial gunfire, and were welcomed to join the feast.
Thanksgiving Day is briefly moved to the third Thursday in November.
Some in the US Native American community feel the mythology of the holiday ignores the destruction of indigenous cultures that followed European settlement. Thanksgiving Day has been an annual holiday in the United States since 1863. The Day After Thanksgiving, also known as Black daman game Friday, is a holiday in more than 20 states. Thanksgiving Day is a day for people in the US to give thanks for what they have.
In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. Thanksgiving Day has been held on the fourth Thursday in November since 1941, which means that the date of the holiday shifts each year. The Senate amended the resolution, making the holiday the fourth Thursday in November, and Roosevelt signed it in December 1941.
What You Need to Know About Thanksgiving in America
The holiday moved away from its religious roots to allow immigrants of every background to participate in a common tradition. The holiday was annually proclaimed by every president thereafter, and the date chosen, with few exceptions, was the last Thursday in November. Thanksgiving Day did not become an official national holiday until Northerners dominated the federal government. The American Thanksgiving may have been modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth (now in Massachusetts) and the Wampanoag people.
In the English tradition, days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important during the English Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII. It also has aspects of a harvest festival, even though the harvest in New England occurs well before the late-November date on which the modern Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated. Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated as a secular holiday as well. Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Germany.
While religious Thanksgiving services continued at a local or state level, after Madison no further presidential proclamations marked Thanksgiving until the Civil War of the 1860s. Washington was in his first term as president, and a young nation had just emerged successfully from the Revolution. The Compact was a constitution formed by the people—the beginning of popular government. The next day, they boarded the ship Speedwell, anchored where the canal from Leiden entered the Maas (or Meuse, a river flowing into the North Sea) at Delfshaven, and sailed for Southampton, England. The Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts, had their Thanksgiving feast in 1621 with the Wampanoag Native Americans. In the 1600s, settlers in Massachusetts and Virginia held feasts to express gratitude for survival, fertile fields, and their faith.
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