President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Thanksgiving is celebrated on Thursday because President Abraham Lincoln declared it a national holiday in 1863, choosing the last Thursday in November as a day for Americans to give thanks for their blessings.
Abraham Lincoln first declared a national day of thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November in 1862. (The date was changed to the 4th Thursday of November in 1941.)
In the middle of the US Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Hale, proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863. It has been celebrated anually since. However President George Washington was the first President to issue a Proclamation that declared a National Day of Thanksgiving on October 3, 1789.
Why Thursday? Because President Washington wanted it that way. Back in 1789, President George Washington declared Thursday, November 26, to be a national holiday of Thanksgiving. This was the first official American Thanksgiving to be held as a holiday. Thanksgiving was then held every year on the last Thursday of November. (Before that, different colonies, then states, held thanksgiving when they wanted.) In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that Thanksgiving would be the second-to-last Thursday of November rather than the last. Why? Because that gave more shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday in America on October 3, 1863 by the then president Abraham Lincoln.
lincoln
George Washington declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1789. However, the Continental Congress (president John Hanson) made the first actual national proclamation on March 16, 1776. The following year, a national day of prayer and thanksgiving was observed on December 16, 1777. The date of Thursday, November 26, 1789 was the date used by Washington, following the precedent of Thursday, November 28, 1782. The annual observance was established by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, and observed each year since then.
Thanksgiving is celebrated on a Thursday because it was designated as a national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. He chose Thursday as the day for Thanksgiving to allow people to have a long weekend and spend time with their families.
President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day during the Civil War, on October 3, 1863. He asked that the nation give thanks for the Union on the last Thursday of November. That made the first true national autumn Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26, 1863, recognizing a long-standing New England tradition of placing the holiday on the fourth Thursday in November. He did it partially to help soothe the national mood, which was weary of the Civil War. He declared Thanksgiving again for November 23, 1864. In 1865, his successor, Andrew Johnson, declared a Thanksgiving for December 7, 1865, and presidents traditionally declared a Thanksgiving for every autumn since. (Andrew Johnson was the first to give government employees the day off, making it a legal holiday.) In 1941, Congress passed a bill, and FDR signed it, that fixed the date as the fourth Thursday in November. FDR attempted to move the holiday to the third Thursday in November, but Congress enacted a law to fix the date at the fourth Thursday in November, thus making it an "official" holiday. On November 26, 1941, FDR signed the bill. See the Related Link for a complete time line of the history of Thanksgiving. George Washington was the first President to declare a national day of Thanksgiving.
the author of Mary had a little lamb was the woman who began working on making thanksgiving a national holiday on Thursday in November. no president approved until Lincoln who approved and made thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November.
Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday in America on October 3, 1863 by president Abraham Lincoln.
George Washington declared the first national day of Thanksgiving, but that was a one-time thing. Abraham Lincoln restarted it. It was originally the last Thursday in November, but in 1941, it officially became the fourth Thursday in November (sometimes November has five Thursdays). And technically, it still has to be proclaimed by the President every year, although that is a given.