In what season does Thanksgiving occur in the USA?

In the USA, Thanksgiving occurs in fall, also called autumn. The holiday is observed on the fourth Thursday of November, placing it in the Northern Hemisphere’s fall season.

Thanksgiving’s late-November timing connects it with harvest traditions and the transition toward winter. The modern U.S. holiday developed from earlier colonial observances and was promoted nationally during the 19th century. President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving observance in 1863, helping establish the holiday’s broader national significance.

Congress fixed the holiday on the fourth Thursday of November in 1941. That rule replaced earlier variations in which the date could be set by presidential proclamation. Thanksgiving is therefore a fall holiday even though many people associate it with the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

A common mix-up is Canada, where Thanksgiving is celebrated earlier, on the second Monday of October. The answer “autumn” is simply the British and international term for the same season Americans usually call “fall.”