When should we celebrate Thanksgiving?
Though U.S. presidents had declared national days of thanksgiving at various times, the tradition of an annual observance began in 1863. At the urging of magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November a national day of thanksgiving. Subsequent presidents followed his example.
Not everyone approved of the change, and thousands of letters poured into the White House. Some accused FDR of bowing to pressure from big business. In 1939, the proclamation came in August, but many people had already made plans for the later date. Football games, parades, and school holidays were scheduled based on the last Thursday as in previous years. Some retailers were pleased with the additional week for Christmas shopping, while small businesses feared losing sales to the large retailers.
As a result, the nation essentially divided over the celebration, and the nickname, “Franksgiving,” was coined.
Though U.S. presidents had declared national days of thanksgiving at various times, the tradition of an annual observance began in 1863. At the urging of magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November a national day of thanksgiving. Subsequent presidents followed his example.
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The Springfield (KY) Sun printed this photo of FDR carving a turkey in 1939. The caption stated that, in the future, the holiday would be observed on the second Thursday of November, but it was actually the third Thursday in 1940 & 1941. (Photo from Newspapers.com.) |
But in the years when November had five Thursdays, Thanksgiving fell on the last day of the month, leaving only a few weeks for Christmas shopping. During the Depression, retailers worried the shorter shopping season would reduce sales. Concerned about losing money, businesses lobbied President Franklin Roosevelt to change the date. Although he declined to do so in 1933, when it occurred again in 1939, he issued a proclamation declaring Nov. 23, not Nov. 30, as Thanksgiving Day.
Not everyone approved of the change, and thousands of letters poured into the White House. Some accused FDR of bowing to pressure from big business. In 1939, the proclamation came in August, but many people had already made plans for the later date. Football games, parades, and school holidays were scheduled based on the last Thursday as in previous years. Some retailers were pleased with the additional week for Christmas shopping, while small businesses feared losing sales to the large retailers.
As a result, the nation essentially divided over the celebration, and the nickname, “Franksgiving,” was coined.
Governors of nearly half the states joined Roosevelt in changing the 1939 date to Nov. 23, while others declared the holiday unchanged. Two states, Texas and Colorado, decided to observe both dates, while Mississippi never made a decision. One observer noted, “This country is so divided it can’t even agree on a day of Thanksgiving.”
One Kentucky newspaper columnist responded to the outrage of football coaches who had to reschedule games in a tongue-in-cheek commentary titled, “President Unjustly Assailed” (Paducah Sun, Aug. 15, 1939). “It is a little presumptuous to think that our New Deal leader would conform to tradition in such a minor matter as Thanksgiving Day when he has strayed from it consistently over a period of nearly eight years,” wrote Sam Livingston. He asserted that “every athletic director and coach who arranged his football schedule without consulting the President should be fired.”
The confusion continued for the next two years, with Roosevelt setting Nov. 21, 1940, and Nov. 20, 1941 (the third Thursdays) as the official dates. Even when a state governor agreed with the President’s selection, some towns held to the more traditional date of the last Thursday. In 1940, the Shelbyville, Ky., board of education adopted the President and governor’s chosen date of Nov. 21 for Thanksgiving, while the Shelby County board of education affirmed Nov. 28 as the school holiday.
By 1941, 16 states were still holding out for the “traditional” later date of Nov. 27, even though Roosevelt chose Nov. 20, 1941, as the official holiday. To eliminate confusion, Congress passed legislation Dec. 26, 1941, making the fourth Thursday in November the legal Thanksgiving Day holiday.
Nearly nine decades later, Americans still disagree on plenty of issues. But at least we can agree on one thing: when to eat the turkey.
One Kentucky newspaper columnist responded to the outrage of football coaches who had to reschedule games in a tongue-in-cheek commentary titled, “President Unjustly Assailed” (Paducah Sun, Aug. 15, 1939). “It is a little presumptuous to think that our New Deal leader would conform to tradition in such a minor matter as Thanksgiving Day when he has strayed from it consistently over a period of nearly eight years,” wrote Sam Livingston. He asserted that “every athletic director and coach who arranged his football schedule without consulting the President should be fired.”
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Newspapers published this map showing the 1939 Thanksgiving Day split, although sources conflict over how many states actually landed on each side. Roosevelt joked that he hoped members of Congress "from States whose Governors have set November 30 as Thanksgiving Day will celebrate both Thanksgivings--the 23rd and the 30th." (Photo from Newspapers.com.) |
By 1941, 16 states were still holding out for the “traditional” later date of Nov. 27, even though Roosevelt chose Nov. 20, 1941, as the official holiday. To eliminate confusion, Congress passed legislation Dec. 26, 1941, making the fourth Thursday in November the legal Thanksgiving Day holiday.
Nearly nine decades later, Americans still disagree on plenty of issues. But at least we can agree on one thing: when to eat the turkey.
Sources:
Congressional Record, Nov. 3, 1939 GPO-CRECB-1939-pt2-v85-3.pdf
"US Split over Thanksgiving Day" Newspapers.com. The San Francisco News, November 22, 1939. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-news-us-split-over-tha/209677954
"Thanksgiving Greetings" Newspapers.com. Sentinel Tribune, November 22, 1939. https://www.newspapers.com/article/sentinel-tribune-thanksgiving-greetings/209678459
Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. Moonshine River, the first book in her Between the Rivers Legacy series, released in September 2026. Learn more and sign up for a free historical short story at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.
She'll break the law to save her mother. He'll uphold it to save her soul.After her father’s sudden death, Naomi Ross is left with an impossible choice: let her ailing mother go without desperately needed treatment—or take over the illegal whiskey business she never wanted.
Then Cullen Downs comes home.
Naomi has loved the preacher’s son since childhood, but Cullen is no longer the young man who left Golden Pond. Disgraced by his own mistakes, he’s returned determined to reclaim his faith and fight the liquor trade that nearly ruined his life.
That puts him squarely against the woman he can’t seem to stop loving.
With Prohibition crumbling and danger closing in from moonshiners, a corrupt lawman, and Chicago gangsters, Naomi’s desperate choices threaten more than her freedom. They could cost her Cullen—and the future she never dared believe could be hers.
In the rugged hills of Depression-era Kentucky, two people on opposite sides of the law must discover whether love can survive betrayal, whether good intentions can justify wrong choices, and whether God’s grace is big enough to redeem them both.
Then Cullen Downs comes home.
Naomi has loved the preacher’s son since childhood, but Cullen is no longer the young man who left Golden Pond. Disgraced by his own mistakes, he’s returned determined to reclaim his faith and fight the liquor trade that nearly ruined his life.
That puts him squarely against the woman he can’t seem to stop loving.
With Prohibition crumbling and danger closing in from moonshiners, a corrupt lawman, and Chicago gangsters, Naomi’s desperate choices threaten more than her freedom. They could cost her Cullen—and the future she never dared believe could be hers.
In the rugged hills of Depression-era Kentucky, two people on opposite sides of the law must discover whether love can survive betrayal, whether good intentions can justify wrong choices, and whether God’s grace is big enough to redeem them both.
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