A History of Thanksgiving Proclamations

Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of nine and twelve in the day time, on Thursday, November twenty-ninth, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

These words were penned by William Bradford, a leader of the Pilgrim settlers of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts and eventual Governor of the Plymouth Colony. He was the second signer and primary architect of the Mayflower Compact and is credited for proclaiming what is viewed as the first Thanksgiving. At that time, Thanksgiving was celebrated when the weather was warm enough in New England for the colonists and Indians to eat outside.

The Pilgrims decided to set apart the 29^th day of June as "a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his Goodness and Favour." But if Thanksgiving originated in June, how did it wind up in November? Through a series of presidential proclamations started by George Washington on the third day of October, 1789, in New York City, that's how!

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Washington wrote, "Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me 'to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.' Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be."

Since then, practically every U.S. President has issued a Thanksgiving proclamation. On October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln penned, "It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."

Everything was going along smoothly, with Americans celebrating Thanksgiving each year on the last Thursday of November, until 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the date, proclaiming, "I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday, the twenty-third of November 1939, as a day of general thanksgiving."

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Not surprisingly, this change upset the nation, particularly calendar makers, college football schedulers, and retailers planning for the Christmas shopping season! In spite of the initial outcry, nine more presidential proclamations were issued before, in 1949, President Harry S. Truman moved Thanksgiving back to the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains today, with the following words:

Now, therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, having in mind the joint congressional resolution of December 26, 1941, which made the fourth Thursday in November a legal holiday, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 24, 1949, as Thanksgiving Day, and I urge all citizens to observe the day with reverence. Let us, on the appointed day, in our homes and in our accustomed places of worship, give thanks to Almighty God for the blessings which have signalized our lot as a Nation, and let us ask for the gift of wisdom in our striving for a better world.

In witness thereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this tenth day of November in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-fourth.