US Thanksgiving - origins, date, and how the fourth Thursday became federal law

US Thanksgiving is held on the fourth Thursday of November. It is one of 11 federal holidays under 5 U.S.C. section 6103 and is observed by federal employees, states, banks, and most employers. The Pilgrims-as-origin narrative is a 19th-century framing; the federal holiday traces to a 1789 proclamation by George Washington and was fixed on the fourth Thursday in 1941.

The one-line summary

A federal holiday observed on the fourth Thursday of November. Pilgrim-framed in popular memory, but rooted in scattered colonial harvest feasts, formalized by Washington in 1789 and Lincoln in 1863, and fixed on its modern date by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939/1941.

Origin

Harvest "Thanksgivings" were held sporadically across the British North American colonies from the early 1600s. The 1621 Plymouth Colony feast between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag is one documented event, not the origin. The Pilgrims-as-origin narrative was popularized in the 19th century (notably by Sarah Josepha Hale, who lobbied Lincoln for a national holiday) and became the dominant popular framing after the Civil War.

George Washington declared a national day of Thanksgiving on November 26, 1789. Successive presidents made irregular proclamations. Abraham Lincoln fixed Thanksgiving as a federal holiday on the last Thursday of November in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War. From 1863 to 1939 the date was the last Thursday.

Why the fourth Thursday

In 1939 the last Thursday of November fell on November 30, leaving only 24 days until Christmas. Retailers complained about the shortened shopping season; FDR moved Thanksgiving to the second-to-last Thursday (third Thursday). The change was unpopular with calendar traditionalists and split the country - some states observed the third Thursday, others the last. Congress resolved the dispute by statute in 1941, fixing Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November.

How it is observed

Most Americans treat Thanksgiving as a family meal - typically turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie - and a long weekend. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York (since 1924) and a televised NFL doubleheader (Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys, since the 1930s/1960s) are widely watched. Schools and federal offices close. The Friday after Thanksgiving is colloquially Black Friday, a major retail-promotion day; the weekend is the start of the holiday shopping season.

Legal status

Thanksgiving is one of 11 federal holidays under 5 U.S.C. sec. 6103. It is observed as a paid holiday for federal employees and is followed by most state governments, banks (the Federal Reserve is closed), the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and the US Postal Service. Most private employers offer it as a paid day off; some retail and hospitality employers stay open.

Where it is contested

Thanksgiving itself is broadly accepted; the contestation is about its framing. The Pilgrims-and-Wampanoag narrative is sometimes criticized as obscuring the violence of early colonial expansion. The adjacent Columbus Day (observed in October) has been more actively contested, with several US states and cities replacing it with Indigenous Peoples' Day. See the Columbus Day brief for that discussion.

In other countries

Thanksgiving is not a federal holiday outside the United States. Canada holds a similar holiday on the second Monday of October (six weeks earlier); see US vs Canadian Thanksgiving. Germany celebrates Erntedankfest on the first Sunday after Michaelmas (late September / early October). Liberia holds a Thanksgiving Day on the first Thursday of November, and Norfolk Island (Australia) holds an American-influenced Thanksgiving on the last Wednesday of November.

The Pilgrim myth vs colonial history

The 1621 Plymouth Colony feast was one of many colonial harvest feasts in the 1600s and 1700s. Other colonies held similar Thanksgiving observances: the Virginia colony, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Connecticut colony, and the Dutch colony of New Netherland all issued Thanksgiving proclamations at various points. The Pilgrim-Wampanoag feast became the dominant origin story not because it was uniquely significant but because 19th-century writers, particularly Sarah Josepha Hale (editor of Godey's Lady's Book), pushed it as the foundational narrative. Hale lobbied multiple presidents for a national Thanksgiving holiday for over 30 years before Lincoln acted in 1863.

The modern framing also obscures the role of the Wampanoag. The 1621 feast followed alliances between the Wampanoag and the Plymouth colonists, and Massasoit (the Wampanoag sachem) sent men to hunt game for the feast. The subsequent history between colonists and Wampanoag - including King Philip's War (1675-1678), which devastated the Wampanoag - is rarely part of the Thanksgiving narrative. Several Indigenous communities, including the United American Indians of New England, have organized a National Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving since 1970 to highlight this history.

Modern traditions and food

The modern American Thanksgiving meal is centered on roast turkey (the typical bird weighing 12-16 pounds for a family gathering), accompanied by stuffing (or dressing, depending on regional terminology), mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes or yams (often as a casserole with marshmallows), green bean casserole (invented in 1955 by the Campbell Soup Company), rolls, and pumpkin pie. These food traditions were not uniform before the 20th century; cookbooks in the early 1900s included regional Thanksgiving menus ranging from roast goose to oyster stuffing to mincemeat pie.

Turkey became the dominant Thanksgiving bird largely because of size - one bird could feed a family gathering. The National Turkey Federation estimates 46 million turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving in the US, second only to Christmas. The Presidential Turkey Pardon, a tradition since 1989 (formalized by George H.W. Bush), gives a turkey a reprieve from the table; the pardoned turkey typically goes to a farm or university rather than a slaughterhouse.

Other distinctive Thanksgiving traditions: the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (since 1924), televised since 1948 and watched by roughly 25-30 million viewers annually; the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys NFL games on Thanksgiving Day (Detroit since 1934, Dallas since 1966); and the "Friendsgiving" gatherings among younger adults (a colloquial term that emerged in the late 2000s, describing a Thanksgiving-style meal with friends rather than family).

Regional variations

Thanksgiving traditions differ noticeably by US region. The New England Thanksgiving centers on the historical Plymouth-Pilgrim framing and includes local foods like New England clam chowder, oyster stuffing, and cranberry relish. The Southern Thanksgiving features ham alongside turkey, sweet potato casserole, collard greens, cornbread dressing, and pecan pie. The Midwestern Thanksgiving often includes hotdish, wild rice dishes, and Swedish-influenced rice pudding in Scandinavian-heritage communities. The Southwestern Thanksgiving blends Tex-Mex and Native American influences with chiles, posole, and pumpkin empanadas. The Californian and Pacific Northwest Thanksgivings emphasize wine country, seafood, and locally sourced produce.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (New York, since 1924) is the largest Thanksgiving parade, with giant character balloons, marching bands, and Broadway performances. Smaller Thanksgiving parades occur in other cities: Philadelphia (since 1920), Detroit (America's Thanksgiving Parade, since 1924), and Plymouth (a smaller local parade). The "6abc Dunkin' Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade" in Philadelphia predates the Macy's parade and is among the oldest in the country.

Retail and Black Friday

Thanksgiving weekend has become the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season. "Black Friday" - the day after Thanksgiving - has been a retail-promotion day since the 1960s and is the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States. The name "Black Friday" originated with Philadelphia police in the 1960s to describe the heavy traffic on the day after Thanksgiving; retailers later adopted the term with the positive framing of stores moving from "in the red" (loss) to "in the black" (profit).

The retail calendar has expanded in recent decades. Many major retailers now open on Thanksgiving Day itself, with doorbuster deals beginning in the late afternoon. Some retailers (REI, Costco, Patagonia) have responded by closing on Thanksgiving Day, promoting the #OptOutside movement (launched by REI in 2015). Small Business Saturday (the day after Black Friday) was created by American Express in 2010 to encourage shopping at local businesses. Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) emerged in the mid-2000s as the e-commerce equivalent of Black Friday.

Economic impact

Thanksgiving generates significant economic activity across travel, food, and retail. AAA estimates roughly 55-60 million Americans travel for Thanksgiving each year, making it the second-busiest US travel holiday after Christmas-New Year. Airports experience their peak Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving and Sunday-after-Thanksgiving traffic, and gasoline sales spike in the days around the holiday. The grocery segment experiences its largest single week of the year for turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sales.

Global cultural reach

Thanksgiving is uniquely American in its modern form. Canada celebrates a separate Thanksgiving in October (second Monday), and Liberia has a Thanksgiving on the first Thursday of November (the country was founded by freed American slaves). Germany observes Erntedankfest (harvest festival) on the first Sunday after Michaelmas in many rural communities. Japan has adopted a Thanksgiving-style Labor Thanksgiving Day on November 23.

Thanksgiving by the numbers

A quick statistical snapshot:

Sources

• Office of Personnel Management, Federal Holidays: opm.gov
• 5 U.S.C. section 6103 (Federal holiday statute): law.cornell.edu
• Wikipedia, "Thanksgiving (United States)": en.wikipedia.org
• Compare: US vs Canadian Thanksgiving