Happy Thanksgiving

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This upcoming week, we are out of school for the Thanksgiving Holiday break. Thanksgiving is a time when people normally think of what they are thankful for while they eat a nice meal with their families and, possibly, friends. Thanksgiving is celebrated the last Thursday of November, but when exactly was Thanksgiving made an official holiday?

On October 3rd, 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln announced that the nation would celebrate an official Thanksgiving holiday on November 26th, 1836. Basically, this speech, the “Thanksgiving Proclamation,” said that Americans would observe Thanksgiving as a holiday every year on the fourth Thursday of November.

The fourth Thursday of November remained as the annual Thanksgiving day from 1863 until 1939 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the day of thanks to the third Thursday in November. He did this in hopes of boosting the economy at the end of the Great Depression. By changing the day, it provided shoppers and merchants extra time between Thanksgiving and Christmas to buy and sell the things they needed for the holidays

Thanksgiving was once again held on the fourth Thursday of November in 1941. Roosevelt, due to Congress’s insistence, reset the holiday permanently to the fourth Thursday of November.

Concluding this brief history lesson, be careful and have a wonderful Thanksgiving Break!

Sources: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-proclaims-official-thanksgiving-holiday