Countdown to
Thanksgiving
Gratitude, gathered around a long table
Today is Thanksgiving.
24 days until Thanksgiving, on Thursday, November 26, 2026.
Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, 2026. Happens the fourth Thursday of November.
Thanksgiving is the American autumn holiday built around a shared meal and a simple idea: pausing to take stock of the year’s good fortune. It falls on the fourth Thursday of November, anchoring a long weekend that has become one of the busiest travel periods of the year in the United States.
From harvest feast to national holiday
The holiday’s popular origin story traces to a 1621 harvest celebration in Plymouth, where English colonists and members of the Wampanoag nation shared a gathering that lasted about three days. For more than two centuries afterward, days of thanksgiving were declared irregularly by individual colonies, states, and presidents rather than observed on a single national date.
That changed largely through one determined campaigner. Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor best known for writing “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” spent nearly two decades lobbying presidents and lawmakers for a unified holiday. In 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln answered with a proclamation establishing a national day of thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. The date held until 1939, when Franklin Roosevelt shifted it a week earlier to lengthen the Christmas shopping season, a move critics mocked as “Franksgiving.” Congress settled the dispute in 1941, fixing the holiday on the fourth Thursday of November, where it has remained ever since.
How the day is spent
At its center is a large afternoon meal, most often built around a roast turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin or pecan pie. Many families go around the table to name something they are grateful for before eating.
Around the meal, a set of national rituals fills the day. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, first staged in 1924, winds through New York behind giant character balloons. Football is a fixture too: the Detroit Lions have hosted a Thanksgiving game nearly every year since 1934, later joined by the Dallas Cowboys. The following morning, Black Friday opens the holiday shopping season in earnest. Beyond the United States the holiday is largely an American tradition, though Canada keeps its own Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October, more than a month earlier.
🦃 Fun facts about Thanksgiving
- President Abraham Lincoln established the modern national Thanksgiving in 1863, at the height of the Civil War.
- Sarah Josepha Hale, who wrote "Mary Had a Little Lamb," campaigned for nearly two decades before Thanksgiving became a fixed national holiday.
- In 1939 Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving a week earlier to lengthen the Christmas shopping season, a change so unpopular it was mocked as "Franksgiving" before Congress fixed the date in 1941.
- The Detroit Lions have hosted a Thanksgiving Day football game nearly every year since 1934.
- The first Macy's parade in 1924 featured live animals from the Central Park Zoo; the giant character balloons did not arrive until 1927.
Upcoming Thanksgiving dates
| Date | Days away |
|---|---|
| 24 days | |
| 388 days | |
| 752 days | |
| 1,116 days | |
| 1,487 days |
How people mark Thanksgiving
- Roasting a turkey
- A large family meal
- Watching the Macy's parade
- Thanksgiving football
- Pumpkin and pecan pie
- Going around the table to give thanks
Frequently asked
What day is Thanksgiving?
In the United States, Thanksgiving is always the fourth Thursday of November, so the date shifts each year between November 22 and 28.
When did Thanksgiving become a national holiday?
President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving in 1863, following years of campaigning by the writer and editor Sarah Josepha Hale. Congress fixed the modern date in 1941.
Why is Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday and not the last?
Lincoln's 1863 proclamation set the holiday on the last Thursday of November. In 1939 Franklin Roosevelt moved it a week earlier to extend the shopping season, and in 1941 Congress standardized it as the fourth Thursday.
Do other countries celebrate Thanksgiving?
It is primarily an American holiday. Canada observes its own separate Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October, and most other countries do not mark the day at all.