It's all because November started on a Thursday. That makes Thanksgiving fall on November 22, the earliest it can occur. This has totally thrown me off. For example, I have a project due on December 3, the first Monday in December, and I feel like I'll have no time to complete it because it will be due right after the holiday weekend! But actually it will be due a week after the end of the holiday weekend! This early Thanksgiving makes it feel like we're almost out of November, but we still have a lot of November left in the tank.
What makes this even stranger is that next year we push everything up one day, and November starts on a Friday, and that makes Thanksgiving plummet all the way to November 28, the absolute latest it can occur.
All this goes back to Franklin D. Roosevelt, of course, who never met a federal standard he didn't want to screw around with. Most holidays that are not tied to a date are tied to a position on the calendar, like Memorial Day being observed the last Monday in May since 1971. Thanksgiving had been observed on the last Thursday in November until Frankie D. decided to make it the fourth Thursday in November. When November 1 falls on a Wednesday or Thursday, November has five Thursdays, which makes everything weird.
Some say Roosevelt did this as an economic boost to add an extra week on the Christmas shopping season, which he apparently did in 1939, moving the date to November 23 (which became known as "Franksgiving" to those who resented the move). The confusion went on for a couple of years until it was resolved in Congress to settle on the fourth Thursday. Why they did that instead of restoring it to the last Thursday, I don't know; I'm sure it was some stupid reason. I'm sick of thinking about it.
I do recall it resulted in a gag in the film Holiday Inn (1942), where the animated turkey can't even figure out when Thanksgiving falls.
I'm glad it's been a while since the federal government has monkeyed around with holidays. Let's just leave them where and as they are, okay? We don't want Trump turning Arbor Day into Mexican Wall Day, do we? Or do we? 😲
1 comment:
Being truly retired, Thanksgiving falls into the same category as 'day of the week,' which I can't remember, either.
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