Happy Franksgiving or Make That Thanksgiving
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by Brother Rogers
Thanksgiving has always been special to me. I think it’s because I have a late November birthday. Whenever my birthday falls on a Thursday, like two years ago, the whole country joins me in festive celebration (or so I like to think).
As a fan of presidential biographies, it is interesting to look at the history of American presidents in this traditional American holiday. Harry Truman was the first president to receive a live turkey, but it was Ronald Reagan who first pardoned one. George H.W. Bush continued this tradition which survives to this day.
General George Washington proclaimed a Thanksgiving in December 1777 as a victory celebration honoring the defeat of the British at Saratoga. Twelve years later, and about six months after he became the first American president in 1789, Washington issued a proclamation from the capital in New York City creating the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government. During his second term in 1795, President Washington issued his second official Thanksgiving proclamation, this time from the capital in Philadelphia.
John Adams declared Thanksgivings during two of his years as president, but his successor Thomas Jefferson, not one for centralized government action unless it involved a large land purchase, discontinued the tradition. James Madison, evidently thankful to survive the War of 1812, renewed the practice in 1814 at the urging of Congress.
Writer Sarah Josepha Hale, author of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” campaigned for decades to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Abraham Lincoln finally did so in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to “heal the wounds of the nation.” He officially declared the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving.
And so it was until 1939. Franklin Roosevelt noticed that there were five Thursdays in that year and the last one would fall on November 30, shortening the Christmas shopping season. At that time, it was considered bad form to start Christmas sales before Thanksgiving (yes, such a time existed). Hoping to stimulate the economy in the final years of the Great Depression by lengthening the shopping season, he officially moved Thanksgiving back to the fourth Thursday, November 23.
It’s too bad we didn’t have 24-hour news channels back then. It would be fun to watch the reruns. In short, the country was in an uproar. Republicans called it an insult to Lincoln’s memory. Schools already had planned vacations. Some college football teams scheduled their rivalry games on Thanksgiving and already had made elaborate plans for November 30.
One poll showed that Democrats favored the switch 52% to 48% while Republicans opposed it 79% to 21%. Overall, Americans opposed the change 62% to 38%. About half the states celebrated Thanksgiving on the new date, while the other half celebrated the holiday on the old date. Mississippi, you gotta love this, was one of three states that gave holidays in both weeks!
The new Thanksgiving Day was derisively called Franksgiving. The controversy didn’t end until a few weeks after Pearl Harbor in 1941 when Roosevelt signed a bill on the day after Christmas requiring that Thanksgiving be observed annually on the fourth Thursday of November.
Who knows what traditions or meddling will occur with future presidents? Just don’t change my birthday! Happy Franksgiving, or I mean Happy Thanksgiving!
Brother Rogers is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News and works at the Stennis Center for Public Service.
Thanksgiving has always been special to me. I think it’s because I have a late November birthday. Whenever my birthday falls on a Thursday, like two years ago, the whole country joins me in festive celebration (or so I like to think).
As a fan of presidential biographies, it is interesting to look at the history of American presidents in this traditional American holiday. Harry Truman was the first president to receive a live turkey, but it was Ronald Reagan who first pardoned one. George H.W. Bush continued this tradition which survives to this day.
General George Washington proclaimed a Thanksgiving in December 1777 as a victory celebration honoring the defeat of the British at Saratoga. Twelve years later, and about six months after he became the first American president in 1789, Washington issued a proclamation from the capital in New York City creating the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government. During his second term in 1795, President Washington issued his second official Thanksgiving proclamation, this time from the capital in Philadelphia.
John Adams declared Thanksgivings during two of his years as president, but his successor Thomas Jefferson, not one for centralized government action unless it involved a large land purchase, discontinued the tradition. James Madison, evidently thankful to survive the War of 1812, renewed the practice in 1814 at the urging of Congress.
Writer Sarah Josepha Hale, author of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” campaigned for decades to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Abraham Lincoln finally did so in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to “heal the wounds of the nation.” He officially declared the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving.
And so it was until 1939. Franklin Roosevelt noticed that there were five Thursdays in that year and the last one would fall on November 30, shortening the Christmas shopping season. At that time, it was considered bad form to start Christmas sales before Thanksgiving (yes, such a time existed). Hoping to stimulate the economy in the final years of the Great Depression by lengthening the shopping season, he officially moved Thanksgiving back to the fourth Thursday, November 23.
It’s too bad we didn’t have 24-hour news channels back then. It would be fun to watch the reruns. In short, the country was in an uproar. Republicans called it an insult to Lincoln’s memory. Schools already had planned vacations. Some college football teams scheduled their rivalry games on Thanksgiving and already had made elaborate plans for November 30.
One poll showed that Democrats favored the switch 52% to 48% while Republicans opposed it 79% to 21%. Overall, Americans opposed the change 62% to 38%. About half the states celebrated Thanksgiving on the new date, while the other half celebrated the holiday on the old date. Mississippi, you gotta love this, was one of three states that gave holidays in both weeks!
The new Thanksgiving Day was derisively called Franksgiving. The controversy didn’t end until a few weeks after Pearl Harbor in 1941 when Roosevelt signed a bill on the day after Christmas requiring that Thanksgiving be observed annually on the fourth Thursday of November.
Who knows what traditions or meddling will occur with future presidents? Just don’t change my birthday! Happy Franksgiving, or I mean Happy Thanksgiving!
Brother Rogers is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News and works at the Stennis Center for Public Service.
