Thanksgiving (USA)

When it falls

The fourth Thursday of November every year, a federal holiday. Canada keeps its Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October.

The Phala almanac gives the exact day for your own city; the lunar and solar rules above are what it computes from.

The story

The harvest feast the Plymouth colonists shared with the Wampanoag in the autumn of 1621, after a first winter that had killed half of them, is the story the day tells; days of thanksgiving were called by the colonies and the states for two centuries after. Lincoln fixed a national day on the last Thursday of November in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, and Roosevelt moved it to the fourth Thursday in 1941.

It is the largest travel day of the American year and the one on which the most Americans eat the same meal; the Friday after is Black Friday, the start of the Christmas shopping season.

How the day is kept

• The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade down Manhattan with its giant balloons, on television in every house from nine in the morning.
• The President pardons a turkey at the White House in the days before.
• The meal in the afternoon, the family gathered from across the country, with each person saying what they are thankful for; American football on the television after.
• Volunteering at soup kitchens and the turkey trot runs in the morning.

At the table

Roast turkey with stuffing and gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and pumpkin and pecan pie.

More harvest festivals