It’s October third; Happy Thanksgiving! No, really — this is the day George Washington proclaimed it was Thanksgiving in 1789. But (you knew there was a “but” coming) Washington’s proclamation was only for that one year. Thanksgiving as a national holiday showed up only occasionally after that, when whoever was President at the time thought to declare it.
Thanksgiving moved around quite a bit. If it was celebrated at all, it was on whatever day they happened to pick that year. It wasn’t until 1863 that Abraham Lincoln (on this very day; October 3) moved it to the last Thursday in November. Thanksgiving didn’t become annual until 1870, when President Grant signed the Holidays Law. It fell on the fourth Thursday in November until 1939, when FDR moved it a week earlier. The move was an attempt to increase retail sales — there was a depression on, after all.
Just like any basically arbitrary action that doesn’t have any meaningful effects, people got all upset, calling it Franksgiving. The opposition party (Republicans at the time) objected that “more time should have been taken working it out, instead of springing it upon an unprepared country…” The unprepared country erupted into chaos, with most of the states going along with the shift, but sixteen choosing Republican Thanksgiving instead.
It’s a wonder the nation survived, but somehow the unprepared country eventually staggered into 1942, when Thanksgiving automatically returned to the fourth Thursday — Roosevelt’s proclamation had only applied until 1941. But in three short years, the world had entirely changed. Not only had WWII begun in 1939 (on September 1, when Germany first attacked Poland), but the first Little League Baseball game was played, the Wizard of Oz movie debuted, Batman first appeared in print, The Grapes of Wrath was published, a professional football game was televised for the first time, nylon stockings went on sale, and the first World Science Fiction Convention was held. And all because they moved Thanksgiving by a week without taking more time to work it out. Well…it might have because of that.
