Make your shopping lists and finalize your plans: Thanksgiving is approaching.
This year, Thanksgiving is the latest possible, giving you extra time to prepare the menu or reserve a table at one of the many local restaurants open during the holiday.
Here’s what you need to know when the annual Thanksgiving Day falls this year.
When is Thanksgiving 2024?
This year, Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 28. It is the last day on which Thanksgiving can fall.
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Why is Thanksgiving so late this year?
Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November, established by an act of Congress in 1941.
Before this, the date of Thanksgiving was a bit of a political football.
The first “Day of Publick Thanksgiving” was on Thursday, November 26, 1789. For decades afterward, the date and even month of Thanksgiving shifted, with each president having to set the date each year.
President Abraham Lincoln was the first to try to establish some order, declaring in 1863 that it would fall on the last day of November every year.
That worked for a while, but in 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt became concerned when Thanksgiving would fall on the last day of the month, potentially curtailing Christmas shopping and slowing the economic recovery. He moved the holiday to the penultimate Thursday of November. That ultimately led to a split in the country: 32 states agreed to the changes and 16 refused to do so. (Massachusetts was particularly adamant about not changing it, according to the National Archives, with Governor Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts saying it would be “more disturbing than beneficial” because of school schedules.)
Two years later, Congress got involved and set the date of Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday in November, taking into account the fact that the month has five Thursdays, so the holiday could no longer fall on the last day of the month .
When can the last Thanksgiving be?
November 28 is the latest date for Thanksgiving to fall.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: When is Thanksgiving 2024? Why it’s so late this year
