United States Thanksgiving Day is fixed by federal law as the fourth Thursday of November.
The holiday developed from earlier New England days of thanksgiving and harvest observances, but its national history is often linked to President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation during the Civil War. Congress later established the modern nationwide date in 1941.
Thanksgiving is celebrated with family meals, parades, football, and charitable activities. Turkey is strongly associated with the meal, although historical menus at early thanksgiving gatherings were not identical to modern Thanksgiving dinners.
The date is not the same as Canada’s Thanksgiving, which is observed earlier in October. Nor is the United States holiday simply a direct annual reenactment of the 1621 Plymouth gathering: historians distinguish between that historical event and the later creation of a national civic holiday.