Thanksgiving, a National Holiday?

How long has Thanksgiving been a national holiday in the United States?

Thanksgiving is one of the first American holidays. It has also become one of the biggest and heavily traveled American holidays every year.  Thanksgiving is a harvest holiday, meaning that it is celebrated to give thanks for a good harvest of food during the past year. Although its roots are in food, it has been used as a holiday to give thanks for many other things throughout history, including military victories.

Today, there are many traditions associated with Thanksgiving, like parades, turkey, and football. People prepare for large meals and family gatherings for days before the event. This has not always been the case. For early Thanksgiving celebrations, not much happened between 1621 and 1863.

The Call for a National Holiday Begins

In 1789, President George Washington called for a Thanksgiving day. The President wanted to create a sense of unity across the country after the Revolutionary war. Between 1789 and the mid 1800s, only a few other Thanksgiving Proclamations were made.

It wasn’t until 1846 when Sarah Josepha Hale (editor of Gody’s Lady’s Book) made efforts for Thanksgiving to finally become an annual national holiday. Hale spent 17 years lobbying to American presidents for a national Thanksgiving holiday, writing editorials throughout the Civil War. Finally, in 1863, she wrote to Abraham Lincoln about the importance of Thanksgiving as an American tradition and things finally started moving forward.

Proclamations to Federal Holiday

Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving proclamation in 1863, considered the beginning of Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Even then, each year thereafter, the President had to sign a proclamation and declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. Between presidents, the date was frequently changed from the third Thursday to the fourth Thursday of November. Not until 1941 did Congress sign a resolution making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday of November and an annual Federal Holiday!