It's Giving "Thanks"
Perhaps, like me, you are still very stuffed from overeating yesterday.
Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. I’m still in my stretchy pants and hope my fellow Americans slept well after feasting yesterday.
Thanksgiving became a federal holiday in 1863, during the heart of the Civil War.
Yes, Thanksgiving is in the rearview mirror, but outside of perhaps indulging in Black Friday deals, it’s not like any of us are going to be productive today. We can celebrate for one more day!
John Mulaney has a bit about how he was sitting in a gazebo in Connecticut and noticed a plaque that said it was built in 1863.
Mulaney notes that timing means the gazebo was built in the middle of the Civil War. He wonders how the pitch for that may have gone: “How’d you like to be indoors and out-of-doors all at once?”
What else happened during the heart of the Civil War? Thanksgiving became an official federal holiday.
The first Thanksgiving was way back in 1621, a gathering of at least 90 Wampanoag and 52 English people that celebrated the harvest. It wasn’t called “Thanksgiving” back then, of course, and “kitchen sink” dishes like green bean casserole and sweet potatoes with marshmallows weren’t yet en vogue.
Still, it was a grand ol’ time. Over the years, other states began their own Thanksgiving celebrations.
But it would be nearly two-and-a-half centuries until the entire country held Thanksgiving on the same day.
Abraham Lincoln was looking for a way to unite the nation. On October 3, 1863, he issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation. His order decreed we’d “observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving.”
And that’s what the states have done ever since! Well, except for a two-year period where that didn’t happen.
In 1939, the last Thursday of November fell on November 30. Then-president Franklin Delano Roosevelt wasn’t concerned about a second Civil War, though he was worried about the Great Depression.
He believed the late occurrence of Thanksgiving would hurt the holiday season. Since the country was still reeling in tough economic times, Frankie D. suggested moving Thanksgiving to the second-to-last Thursday of the month.
While the majority of states were onboard, 16 of them said, “Absolutely not.” In 1939 and 1940, Thanksgiving was celebrated on two separate days. Congress put a stop to that in 1941, establishing a law that Thanksgiving would henceforth be on the fourth Thursday of the month.
Now, pending no further changes, November 28 will always be the latest day the U.S. celebrates Thanksgiving.
I hope you make the most of these extra two days to shop ‘til you drop. It’s what FDR (and, you know, retailers) would want.