Why is thanksgiving always on a Thursday?

Answer 1

Thursday seems to have evolved first as tradition, then as a matter of national law. We don't know for sure which day of the week the Pilgrims' famous first Thanksgiving actually occurred, for instance. That Thanksgiving, interestingly, took place in mid-October, not November. For a brief time beginning in 1668, November 25 was considered the "legal" annual day of Thanksgiving, but that practice lasted only five years. It may be that Thursday became tradition in order to distance the event from the Sabbath day among the Puritan colonists. Thursday was also a typical day for lectures in New England, with ministers giving a religious talk each Thursday afternoon. This practice may have contributed to the Thursday Thanksgiving tradition. Since George Washington's time, Thursday has been the day, and this was solidified by Abraham Lincoln's proclamation in 1863 designating the national day of Thanksgiving to be the last Thursday of November. Later that was amended to the fourth Thursday in November. It's important here to note that neither Lincoln, nor anyone else, ever declared the Friday after Thanksgiving as the national day of shopping.

Answer 2

Is Thanksgiving Always On Thursday

Answer 3

Because Congress officially declared the holiday would be on the 4th Thurdsay of the month. That's why the actual date changes (this year the 24th; next year the 22nd; etc.). Unlike Christmas, or your birthday, it's not on a set date... it's on a set day of the week. It will always be on the 4th Thursday no matter what actual date it falls on. Like Easter Sunday will always be set on a Sunday, but changes dates every year. Some people mistakenly think it's the last Thursday... but that's wrong. Sometimes (like next year) there are 5 Thursdays in November. Thanksgiving is the 4th.

Answer 4

Several Presidents, including George Washington, made one-time Thanksgiving holidays. In 1827, Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale began lobbying several Presidents for the instatement of Thanksgiving as a national holiday, but her lobbying was unsuccessful until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln finally made it a national holiday with his 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation.

Today, our Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November. This was set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941), who changed it from Abraham Lincoln's designation as the last Thursday in November (which could occasionally end up being the fifth Thursday and hence too close to Christmas for businesses). The date of Thanksgiving was probably set by Lincoln to somewhat correlate with the anchoring of the Mayflower at Cape Cod, which occurred on November 21, 1620 (by our modern Gregorian calendar--it was November 11 to the Pilgrims who used the Julian calendar).

Answer 5

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RE:
Why is thanksgiving always on a Thursday?

Answer 6

It used to vary - but in 1941 President Roosevelt decided to lengthen the Christmas shopping season (!) and proclaimed Thanksgiving to be the third Thursday in November. Although this was not universally approved by all, Congress passed a joint resolution in 1941 decreeing that Thanksgiving should fall on the fourth Thursday of November. And that is where it has remained ever since. Enjoy your turkey!

Answer 7

On Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 1939, Franklin Roosevelt carved the turkey at the annual Thanksgiving Dinner at Warm Springs, Georgia, and wished all Americans across the country a Happy Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, his greeting went unanswered in some states; many Americans were not observing Thanksgiving on the same day as the President. Instead, they were waiting to carve their turkeys on the following Thursday because November 30th in many states was the official Thanksgiving Day. Two Thanksgivings? Why were Americans celebrating a national holiday on two different days?

At the beginning of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency, Thanksgiving was not a fixed holiday; it was up to the President to issue a Thanksgiving Proclamation to announce what date the holiday would fall on. However, Thanksgiving was always the last Thursday in November because that was the day President Abraham Lincoln observed the holiday when he declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. Franklin Roosevelt continued that tradition, but he soon found that tradition was difficult to keep in extreme circumstances such as the Great Depression. His first Thanksgiving in office, 1933, fell on November 30th, the last day of the month, because November had five Thursdays that year. Since statistics showed that most people did not do their Christmas shopping until after Thanksgiving, business leaders feared they would lose money, especially during the Depression, because there were only 24 shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. They asked Franklin Roosevelt to make Thanksgiving one week earlier. President Roosevelt ignored those concerns in 1933, but when Thanksgiving once again threatened to fall on the last day of November in 1939, FDR reconsidered the request and moved the date of Thanksgiving up one week. Thanksgiving 1939 would be held, President Roosevelt proclaimed, on November 23rd and not November 30th.

Changing the date of Thanksgiving seemed harmless enough, but in actuality proved quite controversial. It was so upsetting that thousands of letters poured into the White House once President Roosevelt announced the date change. Some retailers were pleased because they hoped the extra week of Christmas shopping would increase profits, but smaller businesses complained they would lose business to larger stores. Other companies that depended on Thanksgiving as the last Thursday of November lost money; calendar makers were the worst hit because they printed calendars years in advance and FDR made their calendars out of date for the next two years. Schools were also disrupted by Roosevelt's decision; most schools had already scheduled vacations and annual Thanksgiving Day football games by the time they learned of Thanksgiving's new date and had to decide whether or not to reschedule everything. Moreover, many Americans were angry that Roosevelt tried to alter such a long-standing tradition and American values just to help businesses make more money.*





As opposition grew, some states took matters into their own hands and defied the Presidential Proclamation. Some governors declared November 30th as Thanksgiving. And so, depending upon where one lived, Thanksgiving was celebrated on the 23rd and the 30th. This was worse than changing the date in the first place because families that lived in states such as New York did not have the same day off as family members in states such as Connecticut! Family and friends were unable to celebrate the holiday together.

Turkey graphic Franklin Roosevelt observed Thanksgiving on the second to last Thursday of November for two more years, but the amount of public outrage prompted Congress to pass a law on December 26, 1941, ensuring that all Americans would celebrate a unified Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November every year.

Answer 8

Tradition, Tradition, Tradition!

Answer 9

probably cause the very first thanksgiving was held on a thursday and they just continued the tradition

Answer 10

That's the day the first Thanksgiving was held by the Pilgrims.