I am interested in the crossroads of law, government, and sociology, and as Thanksgiving quickly approaches, I am reminded of the well-meaning but ill-received attempt to both celebrate the most American of holidays while generating economic growth (also a favorite American pastime). So with that, I take you back to a simpler time, when the most controversial part of Thanksgiving was when to celebrate it.
Thanksgiving was defined as the fourth day of every November. The day was officially set as the last Thursday in November by noted attorney-turned-president Abraham Lincoln back in 1863. This established the holiday as within the purview of the presidency, a fact Franklin Delano Roosevelt would use almost four score later to stimulate a depressed economy.
In 1939, when Thanksgiving would fall on the last day of the month, President Roosevelt tried to change the date of Thanksgiving to give more shopping time between the holiday and Christmas. Political opponents deemed the move a Hitler-esque power grab aimed to capture headlines at the expense of American values. Many states refused to acknowledge the change, while others, including my birth state of Colorado, chose to celebrate Thanksgiving twice. To alleviate confusion, the mayor of Atlantic City deemed the now-earlier Thanksgiving “Franksgiving.”
Ever attuned to the needs of the public, Congress was forced to step in and reign in the tyranny, officially denoting the fourth Thursday of every November the one and true Thanksgiving. This great compromise would prevent the holiday from landing on the last two days of the month, thus allowing FDR to save face.
Happy Belated Franksgiving!
For a more thorough review of this crisis, please check out Andrew Prokop’s piece in VOX.