Know Everything About When Is Thanksgiving 2022 and History Of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is the yearly national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year.

When is Thanksgiving 2022?

Thanksgiving is a popular national holiday in the United States and is always celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. This year, Thanksgiving marks on Thursday, November 24.

In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. 

As it turns out, there’s a reason why Thanksgiving falls when it does each month, and it’s based on the history of Thanksgiving. The story dated to 1939 when Franklin Roosevelt determined to shake up the tradition a bit in the name of capitalism.

Why does Thanksgiving Celebrate on the Fourth Thursday of November?

Thanksgiving had been celebrated on the last Thursday of the month since the time of Abraham Lincoln. But according to source, during 1939, the calendar had been unusual, as the month started on a Wednesday, so there were five Thursdays as opposed to four.

To restore some order, President Roosevelt moved the national holiday to the second-to-last Thursday of the month. Instead of concentrating on the negative, Roosevelt tried to justify his choice with a pro-shopping response: merchants would now have a holiday further from Christmas to provide more shopping time. In a way, this birthed the buyer craze known as Black Friday nearly 80 years ago.

The following year (1940), the change stuck as the second-to-last Thursday (November 21) was announced the official Thanksgiving Day. In 1941, he reportedly agreed that the switch was a blunder, but it was too late to go back because the calendars were already printed with the third Thursday as Thanksgiving Day.

As 1941 finished, Roosevelt made the last permanent change, as he signed a bill making Thanksgiving Day fall on the fourth Thursday of November, despite if it was the last Thursday of the month or not.

So, regardless of if Turkey Day snuck up on you or if you’re counting down the days till you get a taste of your grandma’s famous Thanksgiving dessert again, at least now you have a bite of trivia to bust out at your holiday party. Cheers to chowing down on stuffing, mashed potatoes, and all your favorite Thanksgiving side dishes with a little more wisdom!

Thanksgiving Traditions and Rituals

The Thanksgiving celebration has lost much of its original religious importance; instead, it now cooks and shares a lavish meal with family and friends. Turkey, a Thanksgiving staple so everywhere it has become all but synonymous with the holiday, may or may not have been on offer when the Pilgrims hosted the inaugural feast in 1621. 

Today, however, nearly 90 percent of Americans eat the bird—whether roasted, baked, or deep-fried—on Thanksgiving, according to the National Turkey Federation. Other traditional foods include stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Volunteering is a common Thanksgiving Day activity, and communities often hold food drives and host free dinners for the less fortunate.

Parades have also become an integral part of the holiday in cities and towns across the United States. Presented by Macy’s department store since 1924, New York City’s Thanksgiving Day parade is the largest and most famous, attracting some 2 to 3 million spectators along its 2.5-mile route and drawing an enormous television audience. It typically features marching bands, performers, elaborate floats conveying various celebrities, and giant balloons shaped like cartoon characters.

Beginning in the mid-20th century and perhaps even earlier, the president of the United States has “pardoned” one or two Thanksgiving turkeys each year, sparing the birds from slaughter and sending them to a farm for retirement. Several U.S. governors also perform the annual turkey pardoning ritual.

Thanksgiving Controversies

For some scholars, the panel is still out on whether the feast at Plymouth constituted the first Thanksgiving in the United States. Indeed, historians have recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America that predate the Pilgrims’ celebration. 

In 1565, for example, the Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilé invited members of the local Timucua tribe to a dinner in St. Augustine, Florida, after holding a mass to thank God for his crew’s safe arrival. 

On December 4, 1619, when 38 British settlers reached a site known as Berkeley Hundred on the banks of Virginia’s James River, they read a proclamation designating the date as “a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.“

Some Native Americans and many others take issue with how the Thanksgiving story is presented to the American public, especially schoolchildren. In their belief, the traditional narrative paints a deceptively sunny portrait of relations between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people, masking the long and bloody history of conflict between Native Americans and European settlers that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands. Since 1970, protesters have gathered on the day designated as Thanksgiving at the top of Cole’s Hill, which overlooks Plymouth Rock, to commemorate a “National Day of Mourning.” Similar events are held in other parts of the country.

Today, folks celebrate Thanksgiving for a number of reasons. For some, it shows a way to display gratitude for the harvest, for family, or to a higher power; for others, it’s a holiday made upon simply being with family and having delicious food.