When is Thanksgiving 2024? Why it’s so late this year

On By Littum

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Make your shopping lists and finalize your plans: Thanksgiving is approaching.

This year, Thanksgiving is the latest it can possibly be, giving you extra time to prepare the menu or book a table at one of the many local restaurants open for the holiday.

Here’s what you need to know about when the annual day to give thanks falls this year.

When is Thanksgiving 2024?

This year, Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 28.

Why is Thanksgiving so late this year?

Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November, determined by an act of Congress in 1941.

Before that, the date of Thanksgiving was a bit of a political football.

The first “Day of Publick Thanksgiving” was Thursday, November 26, 1789. For decades after that, the date and even the month of Thanksgiving moved around, with each president having to set the date each year.

President Abraham Lincoln was the first to try to establish some order, declaring in 1863 that it would fall on the last day of November each year.

It worked for a while, but in 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt became concerned when Thanksgiving would fall on the last day of the month, potentially shortening Christmas shopping and slowing the economic recovery. He moved the holiday to the penultimate Thursday in November. It ended up dividing the country, with 32 states agreeing to the changes and 16 refusing to do so. (Rhode Island was one of the states that refused to change it, according to the National Archives.)

Two years later, Congress got involved and set the Thanksgiving date for the fourth Thursday in November, which took into account when the month has five Thursdays, so that the holiday could no longer fall on the last day of the month.

When is the latest Thanksgiving can be?

November 28 is the latest date on which Thanksgiving can fall.