Why Thanksgiving Is Today

Lauren Kelly-Devine has a nice history of the setting of Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November.  It involves Presidents Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt and differences between the states and the feds and between the House and the Senate.  The conclusion (spoiler alert!):

Finally, to resolve this controversy, the House passed a joint resolution declaring Thanksgiving to be commemorated annually on President Lincoln’s selected date—the last Thursday of November.  The Senate, concerned about years in which November contained five Thursdays—amended the proposal.  Ultimately, in 1941 both houses of Congress signed onto the Senate’s version and determined that Thanksgiving shall be held on the fourth November of each month—the day on which we continue to observe the holiday today.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.