Particle.news
Download on the App Store
35 ARTICLES
·
1h ago

Why Thanksgiving Falls on the Fourth Thursday of November

Congress locked in the holiday’s timing in 1941 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1939 shift created a split calendar across the states.

Image
A portrait of Abraham Lincoln peeks out behind a large bouquet of cherry blossoms.
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 21: An American flag flies in front of the U.S. Capitol Building as the sun sets on June 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
Image

Overview

  • Thanksgiving 2025 is Thursday, Nov. 27.
  • After varied early observances, President George Washington declared a national day of thanks in 1789, and in 1863 Abraham Lincoln made it an annual celebration on the last Thursday of November.
  • In 1939 Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the second-to-last Thursday to lengthen the shopping season, prompting state-by-state divergence that Congress resolved with H. J. Res. 41 to set the fourth Thursday, signed into law in December 1941.
  • Modern customs include large family meals, televised parades and football, with Black Friday kicking off the shopping season the following day.
  • The holiday’s story remains contested, as Indigenous groups have marked a National Day of Mourning in Plymouth since 1970 to protest historical violence and dispossession.