If you feel weird about Thanksgiving, you're not the only one

November 21, 2023

Source: Gitnux

This week marks the official start of the fall/winter holiday season. Airports will be filled with hungry, irate travelers and patience will be in short supply. On a day that’s allegedly about gratitude and family, tempers and anxieties can run high, leaving some people wishing they could be anywhere else. Despite decades of messaging in the form of grocery sales, TV specials, holiday movies and that one Norman Rockwell painting, more and more Americans are questioning why we celebrate Thanksgiving or reject it altogether. For the Wampanoag Tribe in New England, the day is called the National Day of Mourning, while other Native American groups call it “Thankstaking” or “Unthanksgiving Day.” In both cases, the groups are hoping to shed light on the violence obscured by the popular myth of Thanksgiving. People for whom being with family for the day isn’t a given may choose to celebrate the holiday as Friendsgiving instead or opt to spend the day alone.

(Image credit: MLive.com file photo)

A quick look back

The current iteration of Thanksgiving wasn’t something that existed in the United States from its founding. Early presidents called for national days of thanksgiving, but it wasn’t a fixed holiday. In October 1789, George Washington called for people to observe "a public day of thanksgiving and prayer" on November 26 of that year. The next few presidents followed Washington's lead regarding the celebration, with Thomas Jefferson as a notable exception. Jefferson believed a nationwide call to prayer and thanksgiving to be a violation of the separation of church and state.

Thanksgiving as a regular fixture in the month of November didn’t happen until Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation during the Civil War, stating that Thanksgiving was to be recognized annually on the last Thursday of November. In 1939, the last Thursday of November was also the last day of the month. Concerned with the economic consequences of a shortened Christmas shopping season, Franklin Roosevelt moved the holiday to the second to last Thursday of the month, although some states refused to accept the change, deriding the earlier date as “Franksgiving.” Two years later, Congress passed a law declaring that Thanksgiving would be observed on the fourth Thursday of November, which is often but not always the last Thursday of the month. Congress’ change to the language accounted for years (like this one!) in which November has five Thursdays.

(Image credit: FPG/Staff/Archive/Getty Images)

Go deeper

A final Reckon note...

Regardless of how you acknowledge Thursday’s holiday, we at Reckon hope that you have a calm, safe day filled with minimal family problems and no fried turkey-induced fires. It must be fully thawed before you put it in the grease! And you can’t raise the temperature of the grease to take a culinary shortcut.

Got something you want us to dive into soon? Let me know at [email protected].

That's all I've got for this week!

Thanks for reckoning with me,

Aria

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