A Tale of Two Thanksgivings

As a nod to the holidays, we thought we’d share with you a fun bit of Thanksgiving history, illustrated by a New Yorker artist.

The New Yorker, November 25, 1939, by Richard Decker

This Richard Decker cartoon, from the November 25, 1939 New Yorker, refers to the political kerfuffle that resulted in not one but two Thanksgiving Days observed in 1939.

Thanksgiving had been celebrated on the last Thursday in November since 1863. In 1933, November had five Thursdays, and the holiday fell on November 30. Then as today, businesses relied on the holiday season to remain in the black, and the late Thanksgiving would leave only 24 days of sales before Christmas. Merchants, hit hard by the Depression, clamored to President Roosevelt to make Thanksgiving a week earlier. Roosevelt refused that year; but when Thanksgiving again fell on November 30, in 1939, he capitulated and moved it to November 23.

Some merchants were pleased, of course, but it disrupted the school calendar, annual football games, and many other companies and organizations. Roosevelt received thousands of letters expressing anger at his attempt to change the tradition to favor businesses. Some states defied the presidential order, and some governors declared November 30 to be Thanksgiving instead of the 23rd.

Roosevelt kept Thanksgiving on the second-to-last Thursday in November for two more years. In 1941, Congress passed a law officially making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.