COUNTDOWN TO THANKSGIVING 2025

November 27th

Thanksgiving Day 2025 — America's cherished holiday of gratitude, family, and harvest celebration on the fourth Thursday of November.

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What Makes This Day Special

Thanksgiving 2025
Significance

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America's Harvest Holiday

Thanksgiving 2025 falls on Thursday, November 27th, observed on the fourth Thursday of November as established by Congress in 1941. The holiday traces its origins to the 1621 harvest feast shared between Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag people—a three-day celebration following the Pilgrims' first successful corn harvest. Today, over 46 million Americans travel to gather with loved ones, making it the busiest travel period of the year. The holiday represents gratitude, abundance, and the importance of coming together.

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Traditions and Celebrations

Thanksgiving traditions include the iconic feast featuring turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Families gather to share what they're grateful for, watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade featuring giant balloons and performances, and enjoy NFL football games. Many Americans volunteer at soup kitchens and food banks, embodying the spirit of giving. The holiday also marks the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season, with Black Friday beginning the next day.

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Historical Proclamations and National Unity

President George Washington proclaimed the first National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789 to celebrate America's triumph in the Revolutionary War. President Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863 during the Civil War, hoping to unite a divided nation. In 2025, as America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary of independence, Thanksgiving takes on special significance as a moment to reflect on American history, resilience, and the values of faith, resolve, and gratitude that have sustained the nation through challenges.

Historical Context

Thanksgiving
Through History

1621

The First Thanksgiving Feast

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims' first successful corn harvest, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited the Wampanoag people, including Chief Massasoit. The three-day festival included the colonists and approximately 90 Wampanoag guests who brought five deer. The feast featured wildfowl, venison, corn, squash, and other autumn bounty. While often idealized, this gathering represented a moment of cooperation and mutual survival between two very different cultures. For Indigenous peoples, it's important to note this day also marks the beginning of centuries of displacement and loss.

1863

Lincoln Establishes National Thanksgiving

On October 3, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November. Influenced by Sarah Josepha Hale's decades-long campaign, Lincoln hoped the holiday would help heal a nation torn by war. His proclamation called for Americans to give thanks for blessings and to pray for those suffering from the war. This established the modern tradition of presidential Thanksgiving proclamations.

1941

Congress Sets the Date

After President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to move Thanksgiving up a week in 1939 to extend the Christmas shopping season (creating confusion with some states celebrating "Franksgiving"), Congress passed a joint resolution on December 26, 1941, officially establishing Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November. This federal law finally settled the debate and created the consistent date Americans observe today. The holiday has remained on this date ever since, bridging November's end with December's holiday season.