When Is Thanksgiving 2024? Traditions, History, and Recipes (2024)

Why was Thanksgiving proclaimed a day of honor by both Washington and Lincoln? No, it’s not about a Pilgrim feast. (Speaking of Pilgrims, whatever happened to them?) Learn more about the meaning of Thanksgiving, plus find history, trivia, quotes, andmore.

When Is Thanksgiving2024?

The United States celebrates Thanksgiving as a national holiday on the fourth Thursday in November. In 2024, Thanksgiving will be observed on Thursday, November 28. This is the LATEST that Thanksgiving can ever beheld.

Thanksgiving has been held on the fourth Thursday in November since 1941, which means that the actual date of the holiday shifts each year. The earliest Thanksgiving can occur is November 22; the latest is November28.

President Roosevelt changed Thanksgiving from the fourth Thursday to the third Thursday in November in 1938. However, this was not a very popular move. (Read more about this storybelow.)

In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. In 2024, it is observed on Monday, October 14.Read more about Canadian Thanksgiving here!

History ofThanksgiving

Native Americans in North America celebrated harvest festivals for centuries before Thanksgiving was formally established in the United States. Colonial services for these festivals date back to the late 16th century. The autumnal feasts celebrated the harvest of crops after a season of bountifulgrowth.

In the 1600s, settlers in Massachusetts and Virginia had feasts to thank for surviving, fertile fields, and their faith. The Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts, had their Thanksgiving feast in 1621 with the Wampanoag NativeAmericans.

This three-day feast is considered the ”first” Thanksgiving celebration in the colonies. However, there were other recorded ceremonies of thanks on these lands. In 1565, Spanish explorers and the local Timucua people of St. Augustine, Florida, celebrated a mass of thanksgiving. In 1619, British settlers proclaimed a day of thanksgiving when they reached a site known as Berkeley Hundred on the banks of Virginia’s JamesRiver.

Of course, the idea of “thanksgiving” for the harvest is as old as time, with records from theEgyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Native American cultures, too, have a rich tradition of giving thanks at harvesttime feasts, which began long before Europeans appeared on their soil. And well after the Pilgrims, for more than two centuries, individual colonies and states celebrated days ofthanksgiving.

How Did the Pilgrims Come to SettleHere?

Initially, when certain men and women of Scrooby, England, were persecuted for separating themselves from the Church of England, they, as Pilgrims, fled to Leiden, Holland. Upon the execution of separatist leader James of Barneveld there on May 13, 1619, they realized that Holland was no freer than England and prepared to go toAmerica.

On July 20, 1620, after putting their plans into effect, they asked for the parting words of their beloved pastor, John Robinson. The next day, they boarded the ship Speedwell, anchored where the canal from Leiden, then entered the Maas (or Meuse, a river flowing into the North Sea) at Delfshaven, and sailed for Southampton,England.

After misadventures and more farewells, these brave 102 souls departed on the Mayflower on September 6,1620.

The Mayflower arrived at what is now Provincetown, Massachusetts, at the tip of a curved peninsula later named Cape Cod, on November 21 and, on that day, drew up one of the most significant documents of American history, the Mayflower Compact. The Compact was a constitution formed by the people—the beginning of populargovernment.

They then explored the lands along the bay formed by the peninsula. On December 22, after holding the first town meeting in America to decide where to build their homes, the Pilgrims went onshore at a site now called Plymouth Rock. There, on the shore above the rock, they settled.After 400 years, their descendants and those of the Puritans are still sailingalong.

What Ever Happened to thePilgrims?

The following highlights reveal what has transpired for the Pilgrims, their Puritan contemporaries, and the descendants ofboth.

• 1621: Over dinner with some of their Native American guests, gave thanks for theirwelfare
• 1621: Built ameetinghouse
• 1634: Forbade wearing gold and silverlace
• 1639: Started a college(Harvard)
• 1640: Set up a printingpress
• 1647: Hanged a “witch” (Alse Young—the first person to be executed for witchcraft in the ThirteenColonies)
• 1704: Printed the first newspaper, inBoston
• 1721: Were inoculated forsmallpox
• 1776: Again declared themselves to be free andindependent
• 1792: No doubt purchased the 1793 first edition of Robert B. Thomas’s Farmer’s Almanac. Today known as The Old Farmer’s Almanac, this book is North America’s oldest continuously publishedperiodical.

Thanksgiving Becomes a NationalHoliday

The first national celebration of Thanksgiving was observed in honor of the creation of the new United States Constitution!In 1789, President George Washingtonissued a proclamationdesignating November 26 of that year as a“Day of Publick Thanksgivin”to recognize the role of providence in creating the new United States and the new federalConstitution.

Washington was in his first term as president, and a young nation had just emerged successfully from the Revolution.Washington called upon the people of the United States to acknowledge God for affording them “an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”This was thefirst time Thanksgiving was celebrated under the newConstitution.

Thanksgiving Becomes a FederalHoliday

While Thanksgiving became a yearly tradition in many communities—celebrated on different months and days that suited them—it was not yet a federal governmentholiday.

John Adams (2nd U.S. president) and James Madison (4th U.S. president) issued proclamations recommending such observances as a “National Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer” or a “Day of Public Thanksgiving for Peace.” Thomas Jefferson (3rd U.S. president), however, believed in the separation of church and state and that the federal government should not have the power to dictate when the public should observe a religious demonstration of piety, such as a national day ofthanksgiving.

In a private letter written to Rev. Samuel Miller in 1808, Jefferson wrote: “I do not believe it is for the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct its exercises, its discipline or its doctrines: nor of the religious societies that the General government should be invested with the power of effecting any uniformity of time or matter among them. Fasting & prayer are religious exercises. The enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the times for these exercises & the objects proper for them according to their own particular tenets; and this right can never be safer than in their own hands, where the constitution has depositedit.”

While religious Thanksgiving services continued at a local or state level, after Madison no further presidential proclamations marked Thanksgiving until the Civil War of the1860s.

It wasn’t until 1863, during the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held eachNovember.

Thanksgiving is observed on the last Thursday inNovember

President Lincoln proclaimed Thursday, November 26, 1863, as Thanksgiving.Lincoln’s proclamation harkened back to Washington’s, as healso thanked God following a bloody militaryconfrontation.

In this case, Lincoln was expressing gratitude to God and thanks to the Army for emerging successfully from the Battle of Gettysburg. He enumerated the blessings of the American people. He called upon his countrymen to “set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise.” As of that year, Thanksgiving was celebrated on the last Thursday inNovember.

Thanksgiving is briefly moved to the third Thursday inNovember.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt changedThanksgiving fromthe last Thursday in Novemberto the second to the last Thursday. It was the tail-end of the Depression, and Roosevelt’s goal wasto create more shopping days before Christmas and boost the economy. However, many people continued to celebrate Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November, unhappy that the holiday’s date had been meddled with.You could argue, however, thatthis helped create the shopping craze known as BlackFriday.

In 1941, to end anyconfusion, the president and Congress established Thanksgiving as a United States federal holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, which is how it standstoday!

Of course,Thanksgiving was not born of presidential proclamations. Read aboutSarahJosepha Hale, the “Godmother of Thanksgiving,” who helped turn this historic feastinto anationalholiday.

How Is Thanksgiving Different inCanada?

Thanksgiving Day in Canada is celebrated on the second Monday in October and has different origins than the American version of the holiday.The first Thanksgiving meal observed in what is now Canada occurred in 1578 when English explorer Martin Frobisherand his crew held a meal to thank God for granting them safe passage through the wilds of the NewWorld.

Today, Canadians often visit with family and friends to celebrate.The Thanksgiving food traditions tend to be similar to their American neighbors: turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and cranberry sauce are traditional. Add some maple syrup for another Canadian twist! See some Maple Syrup recipes.

Canadian football ison the television, and many Canadians get outside for a nice hike or ramble in the woods since the weather has not yet changed for the worse. Everyone is thankful for theharvest!

Read more about the differences between Canadian and American Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Traditions andRituals

Today, folks celebrate Thanksgiving for a multitude of reasons. For some, it remains a way to express gratitude for the harvest, for family,or to a higher power; for others, it’s a holiday built upon being united as a family (in person or virtually!) and sharing in a specialmeal.

A bountiful feast featuring turkey has become the traditional Thanksgiving fare, with over 90% of Americans eating the bird on this holiday. But did you know that turkeywas a rare treat at one time? During the 1830s, an eight- to ten-pound bird cost a day’swages!

Even though turkeys are much more affordable today, they remain a celebratory symbol of bounty. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin ate roast turkey in foil packets for their first meal on the Moon. Do you think they had mashed potatoes and cranberrysauce?

The turkey may or may not have been offered when the Pilgrims hosted the inaugural feast in 1621. Read about what the Pilgrims ate and why we eat turkey today.

Other common Thanksgiving traditions in the United States include volunteering for those less fortunate by donating food or time to homeless shelters or those in need. Sometimes, communities hold “turkey trot” runs or parades. And the presidentof the United States and some U.S. governors will often“pardon” one or two Thanksgiving turkeys eachyear.

See some of our Thanksgiving trivia and funfacts:

• TurkeyTrivia
• The Great YamScam
• CranberryTrivia
• Historic ThanksgivingStorms
• Why We Can Feel Good Eating ThanksgivingFood

ThanksgivingControversy

Based on historical records, the shared feast between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people was bountiful and peaceful. It was a celebratory feast hosted by Pilgrims who invited theirNative American allies in sincere gratitude for a successful harvest after much starvation. It’s also a story of cooperation, trust, and peace.Giving thanks was a longstanding and central tradition among bothparties.

However, history doesn’t exist in isolation. If we pull back, this was not just about a friendly harvest festival but had much to do with political alliances, diplomacy, and the pursuit of peace. If we pull back even further, this is also thestory of foreign settlers coming to immigrate toterritorieswidely inhabited by native peoples—a long history of bloody conflict, strife, death, and wartime betweenNative Americans and European settlers seeking to colonizelands.

History is a rich, interwoven, never-ending book about which we can all learn more. To gain a complete understanding of events, it is important to research the context. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian has some excellent resources about the meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday for American Indians.

Thanksgiving WeatherFolklore

• Turkeys perched on trees and refusing to descend indicatessnow.
• If the first snow sticks to the trees, it foretells a bountiful harvest in the comingyear.
• If sheep feed facing downhill, watch for asnowstorm.
• Thunder in November indicates a fertile year tocome.
• If there be ice in November that will bear a duck, there will be nothing thereafter but sleet andmuck.
• As November 21st, so thewinter.
• When the winter is early, it will not belate.

The term “Indian summer” refers to warm weather between November 11 and 20. Read more about Indian summers.

Thanksgiving Food: Dinner, Sides,Desserts

Is it your turn to prepare the Thanksgiving meal? Here are a few of our favorite Thanksgiving dinner recipes to give you someinspiration:

• Classic Thanksgiving Recipes—including some historically-inspireddishes.
• Thanksgiving Side Dishes—our favorite sides to accompany thatturkey!
• Make-Ahead Thanksgiving Recipes—to save you some time on the dayof!
• How to Cook a Turkey—the basics of cooking the perfect Thanksgivingturkey.
• Thanksgiving Dessert Recipes—absolutelymouthwatering.
• Thanksgiving Leftovers—becausethe leftovers are the bestpart!

Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids &Adults

Perfect for kids and great for decorating the home, these holiday crafts are easy andfun!

• How to Make a GloveTurkey
• How to Make a NutWreath
• How to Make a CornhuskDoll

Thanksgiving Poems andQuotes

Perhaps these poems and quotes will come in handy for your Thanksgivingcard!

Ah! On Thanksgiving Day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South, come the pilgrim and guest,
What moistens the lip, and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past like the rich pumpkin pie?
–J. G.Whittier

Over the river and through the wood—
Now grandmother’s cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin-pie!
–Lydia MariaChild

Orchards have shared their treasures,
The fields, their yellow grain,
So open wide the doorway—
Thanksgiving comes again!
–Unknown

“An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.” –Irv Kupcinet, American columnist(1912–2003)

“Radical historians now tell the story of Thanksgiving from the point of view of the turkey.” –Mason Cooley, U.S.aphorist

HappyThanksgiving!

We give thanks to you and our Almanac community, and wish you a Thanksgiving feast that is both filling and full of grace thisyear!

What Thanksgiving traditions do you follow in your family? Let us know in thecomments!