November 20, 2024 • 38 mins
This episode covers President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s decision to move the date of Thanksgiving with the hope of helping businesses that were trying to recover from the Great Depression – and the controversy that caused.
Research:
- Associated Press. “’Omnipotence of Hitler.’” Decatur Daily Review. 8/17/1939.
- Associated Press. “Roosevelt to Move Thanksgiving; Retailers For It, Plymouth is Not.” New York Times. 8/15/1939. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1939/08/15/93946606.html
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Proclamation 2373—Thanksgiving Day Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/210189
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Proclamation 2571—Thanksgiving Day Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/210254
- Franklin D. Roosvelt Library and Museum. “The Year We Had Two Thanksgivings.” http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/thanksg.html
- George Washington’s Mount Vernon. “Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789.” https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collections/primary-source-collections/article/thanksgiving-proclamation-of-1789
- Greninger, Edwin T. “Thanksgiving: An American Holiday.” Social Science , WINTER 1979, Vol. 54, No. 1 (WINTER 1979). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41886345
- History, Art and Archives: U.S. House of Representatives. “The Thanksgiving Holiday.” https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1901-1950/The-Thanksgiving-holiday/
- Isbell, Matthew. “’Franksgiving’ – The Period from 1939 through 1941 when Thanksgiving was Partisan.” MCIMaps. 11/22/2017. https://mcimaps.com/franksgiving-the-period-from-1939-through-1941-where-thanksgiving-was-a-partisan-issue/
- Kratz, Jessie. “Thanksgiving as a Federal Holiday.” U.S. National Archives. 11/20/2023. https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2023/11/20/thanksgiving-as-a-federal-holiday/ Notre Dame Magazine. “From the Archives: Franksgiving.” https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/from-the-archives-franksgiving/
- Pilgrim Hall Museum. “Continental Congress Proclamations 1778-1784.” https://pilgrimhall.org/pdf/TG_Continental_Congress_Proclamations_1778_1784.pdf
- Pilgrim Hall Museum. “Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations.” https://pilgrimhall.org/pdf/TG_Presidential_Thanksgiving_Proclamations_1789_1815.pdf.
- Public Opinion News Service. “Public Sees Thanksgiving Issue Through Party Glasses.” Gallup. 8/25/1939.
- “Protests Against Advance Date for Thanksgiving Day Pour In.” The Bulletin. 8/15/1939. https://www.newspapers.com/image/101168276/
- Shafer, Ronald G. “Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up a week to goose the economy. Chaos ensued..” Washington Post. 11/24/2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/11/24/franskgiving-fdr-moved-thanksgiving/
- Soodalter, Ron. "'For all the great and various favors': George Washington happily obliged Congress' request for a national day of thanksgiving. Opponents worried it was an overreach of executive privilege." American History, vol. 49, no. 5, Dec. 2014, pp. 44+. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A383327692/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=64a53d59. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.
- The Center for Legislative Archives. “Congress Establishes Thanksgiving.” https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/thanksgiving
- Thomas, Heather. “A Presidential History of Thanksgiving.” 11/24/2021. Library of Congress Blog. https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2021/11/a-presidential-history-of-thanksgiving/
- Washington Papers. “Thanksgiving Proclamation.” https://washingtonpapers.org/documents/thanksgiving-proclamation/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V.
Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Here in the United States,
the Thanksgiving holiday is observed on the fourth Thursday in
(00:23):
November every year. That was not always the case, though.
Today we're going to talk about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's
decision to move Thanksgiving earlier with the hope of helping
businesses that we're trying to recover from the Great Depression.
We are also going to talk about the intense controversy
(00:43):
that move caused. In keeping with the theme of the episode,
we're also putting this episode out the week before Thanksgiving.
It is earlier, just like Roosevelt's Thanksgiving was earlier. There
was some partisan bickering about this decision, and you can
make some pretty obvious comparisons to various partisan bickering over
(01:06):
holidays and how they have been observed in more recent years.
I really did not feel the need to belabor that
point in this episode, so just feel free to use
your own imagination if you want to spend more time
on that. So instead, we're going to start by talking
about how Thanksgiving became a US holiday and how long
(01:30):
it took for it to be standardized as the fourth
Thursday in November. Of course, cultures and peoples all around
the world have some kind of observance to express gratitude
or thanks or some kind of harvest festival involving a
traditional meal. American Thanksgiving, with the traditional menu of foods
like turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes
(01:52):
or yams, has elements of both of those things. There
are a few countries besides the US that observe a
similar Thanksgiving holiday, including Canada, and there are also some
countries that have an official Thanksgiving holiday that is not
as focused on this kind of traditional meal, including Liberia.
Of course, indigenous peoples all over North America have also
(02:14):
observed harvest festivals for thousands of years. Those festivals are
reflections of where people have lived and which foods they
have relied on. One example is Cranberry Day, observed by
the Wampanog tribe of gay Head, Aquinna. Today, Cranberry Day
takes place on the second Tuesday of October, but historically
(02:35):
this could take place over the course of several days,
maybe even a week as people came together for the
cranberry harvest. There's some debate about which European celebration of
Thanksgiving in North America should be recognized as the first one.
It was common for ship captains to give thanks at
the end of a voyage, but these were often just
(02:57):
simple prayers and not bil elaborate feasts. The first Europeans
in North America to combine giving thanks with a feast
may have been Francisco Vesquez de Coronado's force, when they
held a feast of prayer and thanksgiving in Palo Duro
Canyon in what's now Texas in fifteen forty one. The
first feast of thanks among English speakers in North America
(03:20):
may have been in Popham Colony in what's now Maine
in sixteen oh seven. There were lots of other feasts
and observances for giving thanks in North America in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but the one that most people
think of as the first Thanksgiving took place in sixteen
twenty one in Plymouth, Massachusetts. There were at least fifty
(03:43):
two English people there, known as the Pilgrims, who had
arrived aboard the mayflower and at least ninety wampanog. This
celebration lasted for three days at the end of the
colonists first harvest. They did not refer to it as Thanksgiving,
and their menu was very, very different from the so
called traditional Thanksgiving meal today in the United States. But
(04:09):
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a highly
romanticized version of this celebration became part of the Thanksgiving
holiday lore, including becoming part of children's school lessons to
reinforce ideas like community and freedom and good citizenship. This
attempt at a feel good Thanksgiving story glosses over centuries
(04:32):
of warfare, enslavement, and genocide in North America, and it
also wasn't really necessary to manufacture a connection between the
Thanksgiving holiday and ideals like freedom and good citizenship. Those
connections go all the way back to the first National
Thanksgiving Proclamation, which came from the Continental Congress on November one,
(04:54):
seventeen seventy seven. It began quote, for as much as
it is the indispense duty of all men to adore
the superintending providence of Almighty God, to acknowledge with gratitude
their obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore
such farther blessings as they stand in need of. And
(05:14):
it having pleased Him in his abundant mercy, not only
to continue to us the innumerable bounties of His common providence,
but also to smile upon us in the prosecution of
a just and necessary war for the defense and establishment
of our unalienable rights and liberties, particularly in that he
hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper
(05:36):
the means used for the support of our troops and
to crown our arms with most signal success. It is
therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these
United States to set apart Thursday, the eighteenth day of
December next for solemn Thanksgiving and praise. So this obviously
(05:56):
was during the Revolutionary War, and that proclamation issued not
long after the British defeat at the Battles of Saratoga,
so it was meant to celebrate the American victory and
thank God for God's basically endorsement of the colonial effort.
The Continental Congress issued thanksgiving proclamations for the next few
(06:18):
years after that, setting dates in December, and they continued
to reference the war when they issued these proclamations. The
seventeen eighty proclamation also thanked God for quote rescuing the
person of our Commander in Chief and the army from
imminent dangers at the moment when treason was ripened for execution,
(06:40):
that treason being Benedict Arnold conspiring to give West Point
to the British. In seventeen eighty one, after the Articles
of Confederation were ratified as the nation's first constitution, the
Continental Congress became known as the Congress of the Confederation.
On October twenty sixth, just a few days after Theish
were defeated at the Battle of Yorktown, the Congress of
(07:03):
the Confederation proclaimed December thirteenth as a day of Thanksgiving
in prayer. In seventeen eighty two, this national day of
Thanksgiving was observed on November twenty eighth. In seventeen eighty
three it was the second Thursday in December, and in
seventeen eighty four it was Tuesday, October nineteenth. That year's
(07:23):
proclamation acknowledged the signing of the Treaty of Paris, which
had formally ended the Revolutionary War the year before, and
the exchange of ratified versions of the treaty that had
taken place in France on May twelfth, seventeen eighty four.
With the revolutionary war over and the peace treaty signed
and ratified, there were no national thanksgiving proclamations between seventeen
(07:47):
eighty five and seventeen eighty eight, but by seventeen eighty
nine the federal government had found a new reason to
be thankful. This is the briefest of brief overviews, and
we are not going to get into all of the
various problems and debates and plans and other specifics. But
the Articles of Confederation had not worked out as a
basis for the US government long term. At first, there
(08:11):
were proposals to amend them, but after intense debate, a
new constitution was drafted instead, and this process involved even
more intense debate. Very broadly speaking, federalists wanted the constitution
to outline a strong central government, and anti federalists wanted
(08:32):
much more limited federal authority with more autonomy and localized
power for the states. These two things were the opposite,
and so it was impossible to create one document that
would equally satisfy both sides. One part of the effort
to get the Constitution ratified involved the drafting of twelve
(08:54):
amendments to preserve freedoms that it didn't specifically protect. Of
these twelve amendments became known as the Bill of Rights.
One of the others, which was never ratified, was about
the number of representatives. The other stated that quote, no
law varying the compensation for the services of the Senators
and Representatives shall take effect until an election of representatives
(09:18):
shall have intervened, and it eventually became part of the
Constitution as the twenty seventh Amendment. After still more intense debate,
Congress agreed on these twelve amendments. At the end of
its first session. On September twenty fifth, seventeen eighty nine,
Then Representative Elias Budeneau of New Jersey introduced a resolution
(09:41):
quote that Adjoint Committee of both Houses be directed to
wait upon the President of the United States to request
that he would recommend to the people of the United
States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be
observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts the many ignal favors
of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity to
(10:05):
peaceably establish a constitution of government for their safety and happiness.
There was debate over this as well. Among other things,
Thomas Tudor Tucker argued that this was none of their business.
Quote why should the president direct the people to do
what perhaps they have no mind to do. They may
not be inclined to return thanks for a constitution until
(10:28):
they have experienced that it promotes their safety and happiness.
We do not yet know. But they may have reason
to be dissatisfied with the effects it has already produced.
But whether this be so or not, it is a
business with which Congress have nothing to do. It is
a religious matter, and as such is prescribed to us.
If a day of Thanksgiving must take place, let it
(10:49):
be done by the authority of the several states. Eventually,
though both the House and the Senate agreed on this resolution,
a joint committee which included Budenou, presented it to President
George Washington on September twenty eighth. On October third, Washington
issued a proclamation naming Thursday, November twenty sixth, seventeen eighty
(11:10):
nine as a quote Day of Public Thanksgiving. This was
the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation. It began quote whereas it
is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence
of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful
for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection in favor.
(11:30):
And whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint
Committee requested me to recommend to the people of the
United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to
be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts the many signal
favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity
peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety
(11:51):
and happiness. Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday,
the twenty sixth day of November next, to be devoted
by the people of these States, to the service of
that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent author
of all the good that was, that is, or that
will be. Oh, we'll have more after a sponsor break.
(12:20):
After issuing his Thanksgiving proclamation in seventeen eighty nine, President
George Washington included it in a circular to the governors
of the States, along with a message quote, I do
myself the honor to enclose to your Excellency, a Proclamation
for a General Thanksgiving, which I must request the favor
of you to have published and made known in your state,
(12:44):
in the way and manner most agreeable to yourself. While
Thomas Tudor Tucker had expressed concerns that the President might
be directing people to do something they were not inclined
to do, generally, the whole idea of a national day
of Thanksgiving was pretty well well received. In addition to
giving thanks churches and charities used it as an opportunity
(13:05):
to collect money and goods for the needy. But Thanksgiving
didn't become an annual holiday nationally for quite a while.
Washington's next Thanksgiving proclamation wasn't until seventeen ninety five, after
the Whiskey Rebellion. We have an episode on the Whiskey
Rebellion from back in twenty fifteen. In this proclamation, Washington
(13:26):
described the United States as having enjoyed a great deal
of internal tranquility. Quote the recent confirmation of that tranquility
by the suppression of an insurrection which so wantonly threatened it. Yeah,
it really comes across, as we know how life is
here is so tranquil because this rebellion was an outlier
(13:47):
we have now suppressed. Later Thanksgiving proclamations continued to be
connected to some kind of war or other unrest. John
Adams issued similar proclamations, although they were for days of
fasting and humiliation rather than Thanksgiving. Those are to take
place on May twenty ninth, seventeen ninety eight and April
(14:08):
twenty fifth, seventeen ninety nine. That was during the French
Revolutionary Wars. The United States remained neutral during most of
these wars, but also saw them as a serious threat.
In these proclamations, Adams described the United States as being
placed in a quote hazardous and afflictive situation by the
(14:29):
unfriendly disposition, conduct, and demands of a foreign power, and
quote held in jeopardy by the hostile designs and insidious
acts of a foreign nation. During the War of eighteen twelve,
Congress submitted a joint resolution to President James Madison to
request a day of Thanksgiving. He made his proclamation in
(14:51):
November of eighteen fourteen, with Thanksgiving to occur the following
January twelfth, after the war ended. He proclaimed March fourth,
eighteen fifteen, as a day quote which the people of
every religious denomination may, in their solemn assembles, unite their
hearts and their voices in a free will offering to
their heavenly benefactor of their homage of Thanksgiving and of
(15:14):
their songs of praise. Generally, these proclamations all referenced some
kind of God or supreme being, although without naming a
specific religion or denomination. There was kind of a general
assumption that everyone had a religion and everyone believed in God,
and that having the nation give thanks to that God
(15:37):
was an okay thing to do. But that connection to
religion and the holiday's Puritan roots were enough to lead
Thomas Jefferson not to issue any Thanksgiving proclamations when he
was president. That was in between John Adams and James Madison.
He had declared a day of Thanksgiving while serving as
(15:57):
the governor of Virginia. Though during and after all this,
various states had their own Thanksgiving holidays and observances. One
person who advocated for Thanksgiving to become an annual federal
holiday was Sarah Josepha Hale. Our episode on her Ran
as a Classic on November eighteenth, twenty twenty three, and
(16:18):
talks more about that. Hale started advocating for a national
holiday to be held on the last Thursday in November
in eighteen thirty seven. She saw this as something that
might hold the nation together as states became increasingly divided
over the issue of slavery. That, of course, did not work,
and in eighteen sixty two, during the Civil War, US
(16:40):
President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis each issued
Thanksgiving proclamations. Lincoln issued his in April, recommending that people
give thanks quote at their next weekly assemblages in their
accustomed places of public worship. Davis issued his action after
the Confederate army won the Second Battle of bull Run
(17:03):
also called the Battle of Second Manassas on September fourth,
with the observance of that day of Thanksgiving on September eighteen.
Lincoln made two Thanksgiving proclamations in eighteen sixty three, one
on July fifteenth, setting the day as August sixth, and
the other on October third, the anniversary of George Washington's
(17:25):
first Thanksgiving proclamation, setting the date as the last Thursday
in November. He designated Thanksgiving as the last Thursday in
November in eighteen sixty four as well. Lincoln was of
course assassinated in eighteen sixty five, and that year his successor,
Andrew Johnson, set the date as the first Thursday of December.
(17:47):
For the next few years after that, Thanksgiving took place
on the last Thursday in November, although in eighteen sixty
nine President Ulysses S. Grant set the date as November eighteenth,
which was the third Thursday. So at this point there
was only a national day of Thanksgiving if the President
issued a proclamation about it, and that happened on whatever
(18:10):
day the President chose. It wasn't something that was covered
under any federal law. That changed when Grant signed the
nation's first law regarding federal holidays in eighteen seventy. This
law applied to Washington, d c. And to federal workers,
but it was written to align with what was already
in place in a lot of the states. This law
(18:33):
designated New Year's Day, Christmas Day, and Independence Day as holidays,
along with quote any day appointed or recommended by the
President of the United States as a day of public
fasting or Thanksgiving. So Thanksgiving became a federal holiday, but
the exact day that Thanksgiving would be on was still
(18:55):
up to the president. Pretty soon, though, the last Thursday
in November became the traditional day. After the end of
World War One, there was some back and forth about
whether Armistice Day, observed on November eleventh, should be combined
with Thanksgiving, but there were concerns that messing with Thanksgiving
might upset people who liked that tradition. Today in the US,
(19:17):
November eleventh is, of course, Veterans Day. Those concerns turned
out to be well founded, which finally brings us to
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his decision to move the date
of Thanksgiving in nineteen thirty nine. The Great Depression had
started ten years earlier. This massive economic downturn affected people
(19:38):
around the world, but its effects varied from place to place,
depending on each nation's economy. In general, though industrialized nations
saw huge declines in industrial production and correspondingly huge increases
in unemployment. Herbert Hoover was the US president when the
(19:59):
Great Depressions started, and in a lot of ways he
became the scapegoat for it. President does not have sole
control over the economy. In nineteen thirty two, Roosevelt ran
against him and won the presidential election by a landslide.
Roosevelt's first Thanksgiving in office was in nineteen thirty three,
(20:20):
and that year the last Thursday in November was November thirtieth,
which was also the last day of November. At the time,
there was more of a taboo around the idea of
starting Christmas retail before Thanksgiving was over than there is
today today. A lot of people complain about it, but
a lot of businesses also do it. So some people
(20:41):
were worried that this later than usual Thanksgiving would also
mean a later than usual start to Christmas shopping, and
that this would hurt businesses that were already struggling. But
not everyone agreed. People sent Roosevelt letters for and against
the idea of observing Thanksgiving early for the sake of businesses.
(21:02):
For example, the Downtown Association of Los Angeles sent a
letter on October third, nineteen thirty three, asking for Thanksgiving
to be observed on the fourth Thursday in November rather
than the last, to help businesses and increase employment and
purchasing power. But clothing manufacturer Richmond Brothers sent a telegram
(21:22):
on October thirteenth that argued the opposite, saying that moving
Thanksgiving would quote shorten the season and curtain the fall
business of clothes and all seasonable goods for the benefit
of novelty and small gift items. Roosevelt ultimately decided that
trying to move the date of Thanksgiving away from the
(21:43):
last Thursday in November would probably cause confusion, so he
didn't do it. But then in nineteen thirty nine, Thanksgiving
again fell on the last Thursday in November November thirtieth,
and FDR was still in office. This time, he made
the opposite decision to what he had done in nineteen
thirty three. On August fourteenth, nineteen thirty nine, President Franklin
(22:07):
Delano Roosevelt visited his boyhood summer cottage on Campobello Island
in New Brunswick, Canada. At one thirty five That afternoon,
he gave a press conference. He said that over the
previous six years he'd heard a lot of complaints about
the long stretch of time between the Labor Day holiday
and Thanksgiving and the short window between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
(22:33):
He noted that Thanksgiving had fallen on different days at
earlier points at history, and he said there was nothing
sacred about the last Thursday in November, so he would
be designating November twenty third not the thirtieth as a
day for general Thanksgiving that year. The response was immediate,
(22:54):
and with the exception of some retailers who were excited
about the extra week of Christmas shopping, most of that
response was negative. People's calendars had November thirtieth MARKENUS Thanksgiving,
and calendar manufacturers pointed out the nineteen forty calendars were
already printed, so if the President did the same thing again,
all of those calendars would already be wrong. A lot
(23:18):
of big football games were scheduled for Thanksgiving Day or
the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and now all of those games
were on the wrong day. One exception was the big
game between the University of California and Stanford, which was
supposed to be November twenty fifth, the Saturday before Thanksgiving,
but this change meant that it was now the Saturday after.
(23:40):
Schedules for these games were often set years in advance.
Various entities that had some kind of connection to Thanksgiving
or Thanksgiving preparations all had opinions. James Fraser was chairman
of the Board of Selectmen of Plymouth, Massachusetts, home of
the so called First Thanksgiving, and he said he was
(24:02):
going to be taking the matter before the board. Quote,
because we in Plymouth consider the day sacred. Plymouth celebrated
Thanksgiving on November thirtieth that year, to quote, save the
day from exploitation and desecration. The president of the National Poultry,
Butter and Egg Association wrote to the President to say, quote,
(24:23):
your contemplated change will be injurious to many producers and
disrupt marketing plans of processors and distributors. The former president
of the Rhode Island Turkey Growers Association said the date
change quote might throw Thanksgiving into warm weather and adversely
affect the final fattening and preparation of birds for market.
(24:46):
Other turkey producers disagreed with this, though, saying that their
fattening process started in September, so since they knew about
the change in August, it would be a non issue.
Thousands of people wrote to the president, and some of
their letters really demonstrate that wild political comparisons are really
not a new phenomenon. Robert Benson and Clara bel Void
(25:07):
of Groton, South Dakota, wrote on letterhead from an insurance
and real estate company and described themselves as quote representatives
of the Northwest. In their August seventeenth letter to the President.
They said, in part quote, this country is not entirely
money minded. We need a certain amount of idealism and
sentiment to keep up the morale of our people, and
(25:29):
you would even take that from us. After all, we
want to make this country better for our posterity, and
you must remember we are not running a Russia or
a communistic government. Between your ideas of running for a
third term and your changing dates of century old holidays,
we believe you have practically lost your popularity and the
goodwill of the people of the Northwest. I tried to
(25:53):
find more information about exactly who Robert Benson and clarable
Clara bell Point were, whether they were just the self
proclaimed representatives of the Northwest, or whether they had some
kind of public role. I've failed to find anything else
about them besides this letter. Meanwhile, to continue the wild
political comparisons, an Associated Press report quoted Alf Landon, who
(26:17):
had lost to Roosevelt in the nineteen thirty six presidential election.
Quoted Landon is saying, quote, the president's sudden attempt to
change Thanksgiving Day is another illustration of the confusion which
his impulsiveness has caused so frequently during his administration, it
is upsetting to many businesses and college programs. If the
(26:40):
change has any merit at all, more time should have
been taken working it out so as to assure wholehearted cooperation,
instead of springing it on an unprepared country with the
omnipotence of Hitler. On top of all those letters to
the president, there was so much public discussion around this.
(27:03):
As just a couple of examples. On August nineteenth, nineteen
thirty nine, the entirety of page four of the Belleville
News Democrat of Belleville, Illinois was about what day Thanksgiving
would be on. The Knoxville News Sentinel ran half a
page of reader letters on August twenty seventh and said
its readers were against this change two to one. Newspapers
(27:25):
continued to carry heated Thanksgiving coverage for weeks, although it
started to fall off after Germany invaded Poland on September first.
Within a day of FDR's press conference, an unnamed State
Department official, apparently trying to reassure people, had told the
Associated Press that the presidential proclamation affected only the District
(27:48):
of Columbia and US territories. It did not affect the
States Traditionally, state governors had issued their own Thanksgiving proclamations,
and some states had their own own laws around the holiday.
The president's proclamation had not invalidated any of that in
any previous years, and it also would not in nineteen
(28:09):
thirty nine. So in nineteen thirty nine, some states observed
Thanksgiving on November twenty third, following the lead of the
federal government, and some observed it on November thirtieth, the
way they'd been doing it before. Some people called November
thirtieth traditional Thanksgiving, in November twenty third early Thanksgiving, but
(28:30):
some of the biggest critics called it Fanksgiving. A lot
of sources framed the state by state breakdown of who
did Thanksgiving when as partisan, and there were definitely some
trends along these lines, but things were not anywhere near unanimous.
According to a Gallop poll that was released on August
(28:51):
twenty fifth, only twenty percent of respondents had no opinion
on the date change. Roosevelt was a Democrat, and according
to the poll, Democrats supported the move by a very
slim margin of fifty two to forty eight, while Republicans
opposed it seventy nine to twenty one. When it came
(29:13):
to which day governors announced for their own states observations,
things also did not fall strictly along party lines. In
nineteen thirty nine, twelve states that had Republican governors helped
observed the old Thanksgiving date, and six of them observed
the new date. One state did both. Meanwhile, eleven states
(29:37):
with Democratic governors observed the old date and sixteen the
new date, with two of them doing both. The three
states that decided to have two Thanksgivings were Colorado, Mississippi,
and Texas. I can get behind the two Thanksgiving plan.
Having two different Thanksgivings depending on the state caused a
lot of additional problems, like what if you in Iowa,
(30:00):
where Thanksgiving was on November thirtieth, but the grandparents you
were going to visit lived in Illinois, where it was
on November twenty third. This was a particular issue in
areas that were close to state lines, where children might
live in one state and go to school in the other,
or people might work in a different state from where
they lived. On October thirty first, nineteen thirty nine, after
(30:23):
months of criticism, Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation
with that earlier date as planned. It did not say
anything about why he had chosen to celebrate Thanksgiving on
an earlier day, but it did reference what the nation
had been going through in the years leading up to
that quote. Our nation has gone steadily forward in the
(30:44):
application of democratic processes to economic and social problems. We
have faced the specters of business depression, of unemployment, and
of widespread agricultural distress, and our positive efforts to alleviate
these conditions have met with heartening results. We have also
been permitted to see the fruition of measures which we
(31:05):
have undertaken in the realms of health, social welfare, and
the conservation of resources. As a nation, we are deeply
grateful that, in a world of turmoil, we are at
peace with all countries, and we especially rejoice in the
strengthened bonds of our friendship with the other peoples of
the Western hemisphere. In nineteen forty, Roosevelt again proclaimed an
(31:29):
earlier date for Thanksgiving, this time November twenty first. That year,
thirty two states observed Thanksgiving on the twenty first, while
sixteen observed it on the twenty eighth. A Warner Bros.
Mary Melody's cartoon came out that year that showed a
calendar with Thanksgiving marked as November twenty first for Democrats
and November twenty eighth for Republicans. In nineteen forty one,
(31:52):
Roosevelt once again set Thanksgiving as the third Thursday in November.
That made it on the twentieth, which seems very early
to me, but by that point Congress was also working
on taking this decision out of the President's hands. After
some debate, on October sixth, nineteen forty one, the House
(32:12):
passed a joint resolution which read quote resolved by the
Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled that the last Thursday in November
in each year after the year nineteen forty one be
known as Thanksgiving Day, and as hereby made a legal
public holiday to all intents and purposes, and in the
(32:33):
same manner as the first day of January, the twenty
second day of February, the thirtieth day of May, the
fourth day of July, the first Monday of September, the
eleventh day of November, and Christmas Day are now made
by law public holidays. The Senate passed this resolution with
an amendment specifying that the fourth Thursday in November would
(32:57):
be Thanksgiving Day rather than the last one. Roosevelt signed
this into law on December twenty sixth, nineteen forty one.
By that point, it didn't look like the earlier Thanksgiving
celebration had really done much to spur retail sales. This
controversy did not immediately fade from public consciousness, though. For example,
(33:18):
the nineteen forty two movie Holiday Inn starring Bing Crosby
and Fred Astaire, included an animated sequence in which a
turkey runs back and forth on a calendar, trying to
keep up with which date is marked as Thanksgiving Day,
either the twentieth or the twenty seventh. The turkey finally
gives up. Holiday Inn is also the movie that premiered
(33:40):
the Irving Berlin song White Christmas. Roosevelt's nineteen forty two
Thanksgiving Proclamation referenced the newly passed federal law. It started quote,
it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.
It included the entirety of the twenty third Psalm, and
it ended quote, Now, Therefore, I Franklin D. Roosevelt, President
(34:02):
of the United States of America, do hereby invite the
attention of the people to the Joint Resolution of Congress
approved December twenty sixth, nineteen forty one, which designates the
fourth Thursday in November of each year as Thanksgiving Day,
and I request that both Thanksgiving Day November twenty sixth,
nineteen forty two and New Year's Day January first, nineteen
(34:25):
forty three be observed in prayer, publicly and privately. This
new federal law still did not resolve all the conflicts
about when to have Thanksgiving, though, especially in years when
there were five Thursdays in November rather than four. The
next time that happened was in nineteen forty four, and
(34:46):
that year eight states observed Thanksgiving on the fifth Thursday
rather than on the fourth. The number of states doing
this dwindled over the five Thursday Novembers that followed, and
today all the states are allot with the federal law.
Presidents and governors do still issue Thanksgiving Day proclamations, though,
and you can read all the presidential ones at the
(35:08):
website of the Pilgrim Hall Museum. Who knew Thanksgiving was
so fraught? Who knew that changing the date of Thanksgiving
would lead to one being compared to Hitler. We should
know because that's how it works. That became a rule
on the Internet many, many decades later. Yes, do you
(35:32):
have listener mail that's about turkey and cranberry sauce, and
most importantly stuffing or dressing, whichever you like to call it.
It is about none of those things. It is about
a mystery that has now been solved. During hour behind
the scenes many in which we were discussing the bank robbery,
(35:58):
the Bank of Pennsylvania robbery of seventeen ninety eight, and
we were talking about where the key came from, and
I mentioned reading a book as a child in which
someone made a key by making an impression on a bar
of soap and then whittling it out of wood. Tanya
has left a comment on our Facebook that has said
(36:19):
the book mentioned by Tracy is The Great Brain at
the Academy by John Fitzgerald. His brother Tom makes a
key by pressing it into a bar of soap and
whittling a copy. Thank you, Tanya, because I remembered that
this had something in the title about a brain, and
that had led me to The Magnificent Brain, which is
(36:41):
a different book entirely. It had specifically led me to
the sentence the magnificent brain can cox a recipe, which
is like one chapter title of one book. Clifford B.
Hicks was a children's book author who wrote a series
(37:03):
about Alvin Fernauld, mostly in the nineteen sixties and seventies,
but also a little later, and one of them was
called Alvin Fernald Foreign Trader, And that is where there's
a chapter titled the Magnificent Brain can cox a recipe.
Having come up with the slightly wrong magnificent brain versus
great brain meant that I just was finding only results
(37:26):
that were related to something else. So thank you so much,
Tanya for solving that mystery for me. That is definitely
for sure the book that I was thinking of. If
you would like to send us a note solve any
mysteries that we've mentioned on the show recently or in
the long past, I don't know. We're at History Podcasts
at iHeartRadio dot com and you can subscribe to our
(37:49):
show on the iHeartRadio app or wherever else you'd like
to get your podcasts. Stuffs in History Class is a
production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio, app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V.
Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Here in the United States,
the Thanksgiving holiday is observed on the fourth Thursday in
(00:23):
November every year. That was not always the case, though.
Today we're going to talk about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's
decision to move Thanksgiving earlier with the hope of helping
businesses that we're trying to recover from the Great Depression.
We are also going to talk about the intense controversy
(00:43):
that move caused. In keeping with the theme of the episode,
we're also putting this episode out the week before Thanksgiving.
It is earlier, just like Roosevelt's Thanksgiving was earlier. There
was some partisan bickering about this decision, and you can
make some pretty obvious comparisons to various partisan bickering over
(01:06):
holidays and how they have been observed in more recent years.
I really did not feel the need to belabor that
point in this episode, so just feel free to use
your own imagination if you want to spend more time
on that. So instead, we're going to start by talking
about how Thanksgiving became a US holiday and how long
(01:30):
it took for it to be standardized as the fourth
Thursday in November. Of course, cultures and peoples all around
the world have some kind of observance to express gratitude
or thanks or some kind of harvest festival involving a
traditional meal. American Thanksgiving, with the traditional menu of foods
like turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes
(01:52):
or yams, has elements of both of those things. There
are a few countries besides the US that observe a
similar Thanksgiving holiday, including Canada, and there are also some
countries that have an official Thanksgiving holiday that is not
as focused on this kind of traditional meal, including Liberia.
Of course, indigenous peoples all over North America have also
(02:14):
observed harvest festivals for thousands of years. Those festivals are
reflections of where people have lived and which foods they
have relied on. One example is Cranberry Day, observed by
the Wampanog tribe of gay Head, Aquinna. Today, Cranberry Day
takes place on the second Tuesday of October, but historically
(02:35):
this could take place over the course of several days,
maybe even a week as people came together for the
cranberry harvest. There's some debate about which European celebration of
Thanksgiving in North America should be recognized as the first one.
It was common for ship captains to give thanks at
the end of a voyage, but these were often just
(02:57):
simple prayers and not bil elaborate feasts. The first Europeans
in North America to combine giving thanks with a feast
may have been Francisco Vesquez de Coronado's force, when they
held a feast of prayer and thanksgiving in Palo Duro
Canyon in what's now Texas in fifteen forty one. The
first feast of thanks among English speakers in North America
(03:20):
may have been in Popham Colony in what's now Maine
in sixteen oh seven. There were lots of other feasts
and observances for giving thanks in North America in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but the one that most people
think of as the first Thanksgiving took place in sixteen
twenty one in Plymouth, Massachusetts. There were at least fifty
(03:43):
two English people there, known as the Pilgrims, who had
arrived aboard the mayflower and at least ninety wampanog. This
celebration lasted for three days at the end of the
colonists first harvest. They did not refer to it as Thanksgiving,
and their menu was very, very different from the so
called traditional Thanksgiving meal today in the United States. But
(04:09):
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a highly
romanticized version of this celebration became part of the Thanksgiving
holiday lore, including becoming part of children's school lessons to
reinforce ideas like community and freedom and good citizenship. This
attempt at a feel good Thanksgiving story glosses over centuries
(04:32):
of warfare, enslavement, and genocide in North America, and it
also wasn't really necessary to manufacture a connection between the
Thanksgiving holiday and ideals like freedom and good citizenship. Those
connections go all the way back to the first National
Thanksgiving Proclamation, which came from the Continental Congress on November one,
(04:54):
seventeen seventy seven. It began quote, for as much as
it is the indispense duty of all men to adore
the superintending providence of Almighty God, to acknowledge with gratitude
their obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore
such farther blessings as they stand in need of. And
(05:14):
it having pleased Him in his abundant mercy, not only
to continue to us the innumerable bounties of His common providence,
but also to smile upon us in the prosecution of
a just and necessary war for the defense and establishment
of our unalienable rights and liberties, particularly in that he
hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper
(05:36):
the means used for the support of our troops and
to crown our arms with most signal success. It is
therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these
United States to set apart Thursday, the eighteenth day of
December next for solemn Thanksgiving and praise. So this obviously
(05:56):
was during the Revolutionary War, and that proclamation issued not
long after the British defeat at the Battles of Saratoga,
so it was meant to celebrate the American victory and
thank God for God's basically endorsement of the colonial effort.
The Continental Congress issued thanksgiving proclamations for the next few
(06:18):
years after that, setting dates in December, and they continued
to reference the war when they issued these proclamations. The
seventeen eighty proclamation also thanked God for quote rescuing the
person of our Commander in Chief and the army from
imminent dangers at the moment when treason was ripened for execution,
(06:40):
that treason being Benedict Arnold conspiring to give West Point
to the British. In seventeen eighty one, after the Articles
of Confederation were ratified as the nation's first constitution, the
Continental Congress became known as the Congress of the Confederation.
On October twenty sixth, just a few days after Theish
were defeated at the Battle of Yorktown, the Congress of
(07:03):
the Confederation proclaimed December thirteenth as a day of Thanksgiving
in prayer. In seventeen eighty two, this national day of
Thanksgiving was observed on November twenty eighth. In seventeen eighty
three it was the second Thursday in December, and in
seventeen eighty four it was Tuesday, October nineteenth. That year's
(07:23):
proclamation acknowledged the signing of the Treaty of Paris, which
had formally ended the Revolutionary War the year before, and
the exchange of ratified versions of the treaty that had
taken place in France on May twelfth, seventeen eighty four.
With the revolutionary war over and the peace treaty signed
and ratified, there were no national thanksgiving proclamations between seventeen
(07:47):
eighty five and seventeen eighty eight, but by seventeen eighty
nine the federal government had found a new reason to
be thankful. This is the briefest of brief overviews, and
we are not going to get into all of the
various problems and debates and plans and other specifics. But
the Articles of Confederation had not worked out as a
basis for the US government long term. At first, there
(08:11):
were proposals to amend them, but after intense debate, a
new constitution was drafted instead, and this process involved even
more intense debate. Very broadly speaking, federalists wanted the constitution
to outline a strong central government, and anti federalists wanted
(08:32):
much more limited federal authority with more autonomy and localized
power for the states. These two things were the opposite,
and so it was impossible to create one document that
would equally satisfy both sides. One part of the effort
to get the Constitution ratified involved the drafting of twelve
(08:54):
amendments to preserve freedoms that it didn't specifically protect. Of
these twelve amendments became known as the Bill of Rights.
One of the others, which was never ratified, was about
the number of representatives. The other stated that quote, no
law varying the compensation for the services of the Senators
and Representatives shall take effect until an election of representatives
(09:18):
shall have intervened, and it eventually became part of the
Constitution as the twenty seventh Amendment. After still more intense debate,
Congress agreed on these twelve amendments. At the end of
its first session. On September twenty fifth, seventeen eighty nine,
Then Representative Elias Budeneau of New Jersey introduced a resolution
(09:41):
quote that Adjoint Committee of both Houses be directed to
wait upon the President of the United States to request
that he would recommend to the people of the United
States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be
observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts the many ignal favors
of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity to
(10:05):
peaceably establish a constitution of government for their safety and happiness.
There was debate over this as well. Among other things,
Thomas Tudor Tucker argued that this was none of their business.
Quote why should the president direct the people to do
what perhaps they have no mind to do. They may
not be inclined to return thanks for a constitution until
(10:28):
they have experienced that it promotes their safety and happiness.
We do not yet know. But they may have reason
to be dissatisfied with the effects it has already produced.
But whether this be so or not, it is a
business with which Congress have nothing to do. It is
a religious matter, and as such is prescribed to us.
If a day of Thanksgiving must take place, let it
(10:49):
be done by the authority of the several states. Eventually,
though both the House and the Senate agreed on this resolution,
a joint committee which included Budenou, presented it to President
George Washington on September twenty eighth. On October third, Washington
issued a proclamation naming Thursday, November twenty sixth, seventeen eighty
(11:10):
nine as a quote Day of Public Thanksgiving. This was
the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation. It began quote whereas it
is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence
of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful
for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection in favor.
(11:30):
And whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint
Committee requested me to recommend to the people of the
United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to
be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts the many signal
favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity
peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety
(11:51):
and happiness. Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday,
the twenty sixth day of November next, to be devoted
by the people of these States, to the service of
that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent author
of all the good that was, that is, or that
will be. Oh, we'll have more after a sponsor break.
(12:20):
After issuing his Thanksgiving proclamation in seventeen eighty nine, President
George Washington included it in a circular to the governors
of the States, along with a message quote, I do
myself the honor to enclose to your Excellency, a Proclamation
for a General Thanksgiving, which I must request the favor
of you to have published and made known in your state,
(12:44):
in the way and manner most agreeable to yourself. While
Thomas Tudor Tucker had expressed concerns that the President might
be directing people to do something they were not inclined
to do, generally, the whole idea of a national day
of Thanksgiving was pretty well well received. In addition to
giving thanks churches and charities used it as an opportunity
(13:05):
to collect money and goods for the needy. But Thanksgiving
didn't become an annual holiday nationally for quite a while.
Washington's next Thanksgiving proclamation wasn't until seventeen ninety five, after
the Whiskey Rebellion. We have an episode on the Whiskey
Rebellion from back in twenty fifteen. In this proclamation, Washington
(13:26):
described the United States as having enjoyed a great deal
of internal tranquility. Quote the recent confirmation of that tranquility
by the suppression of an insurrection which so wantonly threatened it. Yeah,
it really comes across, as we know how life is
here is so tranquil because this rebellion was an outlier
(13:47):
we have now suppressed. Later Thanksgiving proclamations continued to be
connected to some kind of war or other unrest. John
Adams issued similar proclamations, although they were for days of
fasting and humiliation rather than Thanksgiving. Those are to take
place on May twenty ninth, seventeen ninety eight and April
(14:08):
twenty fifth, seventeen ninety nine. That was during the French
Revolutionary Wars. The United States remained neutral during most of
these wars, but also saw them as a serious threat.
In these proclamations, Adams described the United States as being
placed in a quote hazardous and afflictive situation by the
(14:29):
unfriendly disposition, conduct, and demands of a foreign power, and
quote held in jeopardy by the hostile designs and insidious
acts of a foreign nation. During the War of eighteen twelve,
Congress submitted a joint resolution to President James Madison to
request a day of Thanksgiving. He made his proclamation in
(14:51):
November of eighteen fourteen, with Thanksgiving to occur the following
January twelfth, after the war ended. He proclaimed March fourth,
eighteen fifteen, as a day quote which the people of
every religious denomination may, in their solemn assembles, unite their
hearts and their voices in a free will offering to
their heavenly benefactor of their homage of Thanksgiving and of
(15:14):
their songs of praise. Generally, these proclamations all referenced some
kind of God or supreme being, although without naming a
specific religion or denomination. There was kind of a general
assumption that everyone had a religion and everyone believed in God,
and that having the nation give thanks to that God
(15:37):
was an okay thing to do. But that connection to
religion and the holiday's Puritan roots were enough to lead
Thomas Jefferson not to issue any Thanksgiving proclamations when he
was president. That was in between John Adams and James Madison.
He had declared a day of Thanksgiving while serving as
(15:57):
the governor of Virginia. Though during and after all this,
various states had their own Thanksgiving holidays and observances. One
person who advocated for Thanksgiving to become an annual federal
holiday was Sarah Josepha Hale. Our episode on her Ran
as a Classic on November eighteenth, twenty twenty three, and
(16:18):
talks more about that. Hale started advocating for a national
holiday to be held on the last Thursday in November
in eighteen thirty seven. She saw this as something that
might hold the nation together as states became increasingly divided
over the issue of slavery. That, of course, did not work,
and in eighteen sixty two, during the Civil War, US
(16:40):
President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis each issued
Thanksgiving proclamations. Lincoln issued his in April, recommending that people
give thanks quote at their next weekly assemblages in their
accustomed places of public worship. Davis issued his action after
the Confederate army won the Second Battle of bull Run
(17:03):
also called the Battle of Second Manassas on September fourth,
with the observance of that day of Thanksgiving on September eighteen.
Lincoln made two Thanksgiving proclamations in eighteen sixty three, one
on July fifteenth, setting the day as August sixth, and
the other on October third, the anniversary of George Washington's
(17:25):
first Thanksgiving proclamation, setting the date as the last Thursday
in November. He designated Thanksgiving as the last Thursday in
November in eighteen sixty four as well. Lincoln was of
course assassinated in eighteen sixty five, and that year his successor,
Andrew Johnson, set the date as the first Thursday of December.
(17:47):
For the next few years after that, Thanksgiving took place
on the last Thursday in November, although in eighteen sixty
nine President Ulysses S. Grant set the date as November eighteenth,
which was the third Thursday. So at this point there
was only a national day of Thanksgiving if the President
issued a proclamation about it, and that happened on whatever
(18:10):
day the President chose. It wasn't something that was covered
under any federal law. That changed when Grant signed the
nation's first law regarding federal holidays in eighteen seventy. This
law applied to Washington, d c. And to federal workers,
but it was written to align with what was already
in place in a lot of the states. This law
(18:33):
designated New Year's Day, Christmas Day, and Independence Day as holidays,
along with quote any day appointed or recommended by the
President of the United States as a day of public
fasting or Thanksgiving. So Thanksgiving became a federal holiday, but
the exact day that Thanksgiving would be on was still
(18:55):
up to the president. Pretty soon, though, the last Thursday
in November became the traditional day. After the end of
World War One, there was some back and forth about
whether Armistice Day, observed on November eleventh, should be combined
with Thanksgiving, but there were concerns that messing with Thanksgiving
might upset people who liked that tradition. Today in the US,
(19:17):
November eleventh is, of course, Veterans Day. Those concerns turned
out to be well founded, which finally brings us to
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his decision to move the date
of Thanksgiving in nineteen thirty nine. The Great Depression had
started ten years earlier. This massive economic downturn affected people
(19:38):
around the world, but its effects varied from place to place,
depending on each nation's economy. In general, though industrialized nations
saw huge declines in industrial production and correspondingly huge increases
in unemployment. Herbert Hoover was the US president when the
(19:59):
Great Depressions started, and in a lot of ways he
became the scapegoat for it. President does not have sole
control over the economy. In nineteen thirty two, Roosevelt ran
against him and won the presidential election by a landslide.
Roosevelt's first Thanksgiving in office was in nineteen thirty three,
(20:20):
and that year the last Thursday in November was November thirtieth,
which was also the last day of November. At the time,
there was more of a taboo around the idea of
starting Christmas retail before Thanksgiving was over than there is
today today. A lot of people complain about it, but
a lot of businesses also do it. So some people
(20:41):
were worried that this later than usual Thanksgiving would also
mean a later than usual start to Christmas shopping, and
that this would hurt businesses that were already struggling. But
not everyone agreed. People sent Roosevelt letters for and against
the idea of observing Thanksgiving early for the sake of businesses.
(21:02):
For example, the Downtown Association of Los Angeles sent a
letter on October third, nineteen thirty three, asking for Thanksgiving
to be observed on the fourth Thursday in November rather
than the last, to help businesses and increase employment and
purchasing power. But clothing manufacturer Richmond Brothers sent a telegram
(21:22):
on October thirteenth that argued the opposite, saying that moving
Thanksgiving would quote shorten the season and curtain the fall
business of clothes and all seasonable goods for the benefit
of novelty and small gift items. Roosevelt ultimately decided that
trying to move the date of Thanksgiving away from the
(21:43):
last Thursday in November would probably cause confusion, so he
didn't do it. But then in nineteen thirty nine, Thanksgiving
again fell on the last Thursday in November November thirtieth,
and FDR was still in office. This time, he made
the opposite decision to what he had done in nineteen
thirty three. On August fourteenth, nineteen thirty nine, President Franklin
(22:07):
Delano Roosevelt visited his boyhood summer cottage on Campobello Island
in New Brunswick, Canada. At one thirty five That afternoon,
he gave a press conference. He said that over the
previous six years he'd heard a lot of complaints about
the long stretch of time between the Labor Day holiday
and Thanksgiving and the short window between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
(22:33):
He noted that Thanksgiving had fallen on different days at
earlier points at history, and he said there was nothing
sacred about the last Thursday in November, so he would
be designating November twenty third not the thirtieth as a
day for general Thanksgiving that year. The response was immediate,
(22:54):
and with the exception of some retailers who were excited
about the extra week of Christmas shopping, most of that
response was negative. People's calendars had November thirtieth MARKENUS Thanksgiving,
and calendar manufacturers pointed out the nineteen forty calendars were
already printed, so if the President did the same thing again,
all of those calendars would already be wrong. A lot
(23:18):
of big football games were scheduled for Thanksgiving Day or
the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and now all of those games
were on the wrong day. One exception was the big
game between the University of California and Stanford, which was
supposed to be November twenty fifth, the Saturday before Thanksgiving,
but this change meant that it was now the Saturday after.
(23:40):
Schedules for these games were often set years in advance.
Various entities that had some kind of connection to Thanksgiving
or Thanksgiving preparations all had opinions. James Fraser was chairman
of the Board of Selectmen of Plymouth, Massachusetts, home of
the so called First Thanksgiving, and he said he was
(24:02):
going to be taking the matter before the board. Quote,
because we in Plymouth consider the day sacred. Plymouth celebrated
Thanksgiving on November thirtieth that year, to quote, save the
day from exploitation and desecration. The president of the National Poultry,
Butter and Egg Association wrote to the President to say, quote,
(24:23):
your contemplated change will be injurious to many producers and
disrupt marketing plans of processors and distributors. The former president
of the Rhode Island Turkey Growers Association said the date
change quote might throw Thanksgiving into warm weather and adversely
affect the final fattening and preparation of birds for market.
(24:46):
Other turkey producers disagreed with this, though, saying that their
fattening process started in September, so since they knew about
the change in August, it would be a non issue.
Thousands of people wrote to the president, and some of
their letters really demonstrate that wild political comparisons are really
not a new phenomenon. Robert Benson and Clara bel Void
(25:07):
of Groton, South Dakota, wrote on letterhead from an insurance
and real estate company and described themselves as quote representatives
of the Northwest. In their August seventeenth letter to the President.
They said, in part quote, this country is not entirely
money minded. We need a certain amount of idealism and
sentiment to keep up the morale of our people, and
(25:29):
you would even take that from us. After all, we
want to make this country better for our posterity, and
you must remember we are not running a Russia or
a communistic government. Between your ideas of running for a
third term and your changing dates of century old holidays,
we believe you have practically lost your popularity and the
goodwill of the people of the Northwest. I tried to
(25:53):
find more information about exactly who Robert Benson and clarable
Clara bell Point were, whether they were just the self
proclaimed representatives of the Northwest, or whether they had some
kind of public role. I've failed to find anything else
about them besides this letter. Meanwhile, to continue the wild
political comparisons, an Associated Press report quoted Alf Landon, who
(26:17):
had lost to Roosevelt in the nineteen thirty six presidential election.
Quoted Landon is saying, quote, the president's sudden attempt to
change Thanksgiving Day is another illustration of the confusion which
his impulsiveness has caused so frequently during his administration, it
is upsetting to many businesses and college programs. If the
(26:40):
change has any merit at all, more time should have
been taken working it out so as to assure wholehearted cooperation,
instead of springing it on an unprepared country with the
omnipotence of Hitler. On top of all those letters to
the president, there was so much public discussion around this.
(27:03):
As just a couple of examples. On August nineteenth, nineteen
thirty nine, the entirety of page four of the Belleville
News Democrat of Belleville, Illinois was about what day Thanksgiving
would be on. The Knoxville News Sentinel ran half a
page of reader letters on August twenty seventh and said
its readers were against this change two to one. Newspapers
(27:25):
continued to carry heated Thanksgiving coverage for weeks, although it
started to fall off after Germany invaded Poland on September first.
Within a day of FDR's press conference, an unnamed State
Department official, apparently trying to reassure people, had told the
Associated Press that the presidential proclamation affected only the District
(27:48):
of Columbia and US territories. It did not affect the
States Traditionally, state governors had issued their own Thanksgiving proclamations,
and some states had their own own laws around the holiday.
The president's proclamation had not invalidated any of that in
any previous years, and it also would not in nineteen
(28:09):
thirty nine. So in nineteen thirty nine, some states observed
Thanksgiving on November twenty third, following the lead of the
federal government, and some observed it on November thirtieth, the
way they'd been doing it before. Some people called November
thirtieth traditional Thanksgiving, in November twenty third early Thanksgiving, but
(28:30):
some of the biggest critics called it Fanksgiving. A lot
of sources framed the state by state breakdown of who
did Thanksgiving when as partisan, and there were definitely some
trends along these lines, but things were not anywhere near unanimous.
According to a Gallop poll that was released on August
(28:51):
twenty fifth, only twenty percent of respondents had no opinion
on the date change. Roosevelt was a Democrat, and according
to the poll, Democrats supported the move by a very
slim margin of fifty two to forty eight, while Republicans
opposed it seventy nine to twenty one. When it came
(29:13):
to which day governors announced for their own states observations,
things also did not fall strictly along party lines. In
nineteen thirty nine, twelve states that had Republican governors helped
observed the old Thanksgiving date, and six of them observed
the new date. One state did both. Meanwhile, eleven states
(29:37):
with Democratic governors observed the old date and sixteen the
new date, with two of them doing both. The three
states that decided to have two Thanksgivings were Colorado, Mississippi,
and Texas. I can get behind the two Thanksgiving plan.
Having two different Thanksgivings depending on the state caused a
lot of additional problems, like what if you in Iowa,
(30:00):
where Thanksgiving was on November thirtieth, but the grandparents you
were going to visit lived in Illinois, where it was
on November twenty third. This was a particular issue in
areas that were close to state lines, where children might
live in one state and go to school in the other,
or people might work in a different state from where
they lived. On October thirty first, nineteen thirty nine, after
(30:23):
months of criticism, Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation
with that earlier date as planned. It did not say
anything about why he had chosen to celebrate Thanksgiving on
an earlier day, but it did reference what the nation
had been going through in the years leading up to
that quote. Our nation has gone steadily forward in the
(30:44):
application of democratic processes to economic and social problems. We
have faced the specters of business depression, of unemployment, and
of widespread agricultural distress, and our positive efforts to alleviate
these conditions have met with heartening results. We have also
been permitted to see the fruition of measures which we
(31:05):
have undertaken in the realms of health, social welfare, and
the conservation of resources. As a nation, we are deeply
grateful that, in a world of turmoil, we are at
peace with all countries, and we especially rejoice in the
strengthened bonds of our friendship with the other peoples of
the Western hemisphere. In nineteen forty, Roosevelt again proclaimed an
(31:29):
earlier date for Thanksgiving, this time November twenty first. That year,
thirty two states observed Thanksgiving on the twenty first, while
sixteen observed it on the twenty eighth. A Warner Bros.
Mary Melody's cartoon came out that year that showed a
calendar with Thanksgiving marked as November twenty first for Democrats
and November twenty eighth for Republicans. In nineteen forty one,
(31:52):
Roosevelt once again set Thanksgiving as the third Thursday in November.
That made it on the twentieth, which seems very early
to me, but by that point Congress was also working
on taking this decision out of the President's hands. After
some debate, on October sixth, nineteen forty one, the House
(32:12):
passed a joint resolution which read quote resolved by the
Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled that the last Thursday in November
in each year after the year nineteen forty one be
known as Thanksgiving Day, and as hereby made a legal
public holiday to all intents and purposes, and in the
(32:33):
same manner as the first day of January, the twenty
second day of February, the thirtieth day of May, the
fourth day of July, the first Monday of September, the
eleventh day of November, and Christmas Day are now made
by law public holidays. The Senate passed this resolution with
an amendment specifying that the fourth Thursday in November would
(32:57):
be Thanksgiving Day rather than the last one. Roosevelt signed
this into law on December twenty sixth, nineteen forty one.
By that point, it didn't look like the earlier Thanksgiving
celebration had really done much to spur retail sales. This
controversy did not immediately fade from public consciousness, though. For example,
(33:18):
the nineteen forty two movie Holiday Inn starring Bing Crosby
and Fred Astaire, included an animated sequence in which a
turkey runs back and forth on a calendar, trying to
keep up with which date is marked as Thanksgiving Day,
either the twentieth or the twenty seventh. The turkey finally
gives up. Holiday Inn is also the movie that premiered
(33:40):
the Irving Berlin song White Christmas. Roosevelt's nineteen forty two
Thanksgiving Proclamation referenced the newly passed federal law. It started quote,
it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.
It included the entirety of the twenty third Psalm, and
it ended quote, Now, Therefore, I Franklin D. Roosevelt, President
(34:02):
of the United States of America, do hereby invite the
attention of the people to the Joint Resolution of Congress
approved December twenty sixth, nineteen forty one, which designates the
fourth Thursday in November of each year as Thanksgiving Day,
and I request that both Thanksgiving Day November twenty sixth,
nineteen forty two and New Year's Day January first, nineteen
(34:25):
forty three be observed in prayer, publicly and privately. This
new federal law still did not resolve all the conflicts
about when to have Thanksgiving, though, especially in years when
there were five Thursdays in November rather than four. The
next time that happened was in nineteen forty four, and
(34:46):
that year eight states observed Thanksgiving on the fifth Thursday
rather than on the fourth. The number of states doing
this dwindled over the five Thursday Novembers that followed, and
today all the states are allot with the federal law.
Presidents and governors do still issue Thanksgiving Day proclamations, though,
and you can read all the presidential ones at the
(35:08):
website of the Pilgrim Hall Museum. Who knew Thanksgiving was
so fraught? Who knew that changing the date of Thanksgiving
would lead to one being compared to Hitler. We should
know because that's how it works. That became a rule
on the Internet many, many decades later. Yes, do you
(35:32):
have listener mail that's about turkey and cranberry sauce, and
most importantly stuffing or dressing, whichever you like to call it.
It is about none of those things. It is about
a mystery that has now been solved. During hour behind
the scenes many in which we were discussing the bank robbery,
(35:58):
the Bank of Pennsylvania robbery of seventeen ninety eight, and
we were talking about where the key came from, and
I mentioned reading a book as a child in which
someone made a key by making an impression on a bar
of soap and then whittling it out of wood. Tanya
has left a comment on our Facebook that has said
(36:19):
the book mentioned by Tracy is The Great Brain at
the Academy by John Fitzgerald. His brother Tom makes a
key by pressing it into a bar of soap and
whittling a copy. Thank you, Tanya, because I remembered that
this had something in the title about a brain, and
that had led me to The Magnificent Brain, which is
(36:41):
a different book entirely. It had specifically led me to
the sentence the magnificent brain can cox a recipe, which
is like one chapter title of one book. Clifford B.
Hicks was a children's book author who wrote a series
(37:03):
about Alvin Fernauld, mostly in the nineteen sixties and seventies,
but also a little later, and one of them was
called Alvin Fernald Foreign Trader, And that is where there's
a chapter titled the Magnificent Brain can cox a recipe.
Having come up with the slightly wrong magnificent brain versus
great brain meant that I just was finding only results
(37:26):
that were related to something else. So thank you so much,
Tanya for solving that mystery for me. That is definitely
for sure the book that I was thinking of. If
you would like to send us a note solve any
mysteries that we've mentioned on the show recently or in
the long past, I don't know. We're at History Podcasts
at iHeartRadio dot com and you can subscribe to our
(37:49):
show on the iHeartRadio app or wherever else you'd like
to get your podcasts. Stuffs in History Class is a
production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio, app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff You Missed in History Class News
Hosts And Creators
Tracy V. Wilson
Holly Frey
Popular Podcasts
Good Game with Sarah Spain
Good Game is your one-stop shop for the biggest stories in women’s sports. Every day, host Sarah Spain gives you the stories, stakes, stars and stats to keep up with your favorite women’s teams, leagues and athletes. Through thoughtful insight, witty banter, and an all around good time, Sarah and friends break down the latest news, talk about the games you can’t miss, and debate the issues of the day. Don’t miss interviews with the people of the moment, whether they be athletes, coaches, reporters, or celebrity fans.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.