Michele Q's George Washington Update On Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving

This morning Michele Q reminded me that 51 weeks ago today I blogged about Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of October 18, 1863 proclaiming the "last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."

Lincoln had such a poetic way with words.

Below is this morning's comment from Michele Q....

MicheleQ has left a new comment on your post "Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation":

Actually it was president George Washington who issued a proclamation on October 3, 1789 naming Thursday, November 26, 1789 as an official holiday of “sincere and humble thanks.” After that different states celebrated on different days until Lincoln’s proclamation on October 3, 1863 when he made Thanksgiving a national holiday to be celebrated specifically on the last Thursday of November.

In 1939 FDR moved it to the third Thursday of November to lengthen the Christmas shopping season and boost the economy still recovering from the Depression. That move, which set off a national debate, was reversed in 1941 when Congress passed and President Roosevelt approved a joint house resolution establishing, by law, the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.)

In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday to the third Thursday of November to lengthen the Christmas shopping season and boost the economy still recovering from the Depression. This move, which set off a national debate, was reversed in 1941 when Congress passed and President Roosevelt approved a joint house resolution establishing, by law, the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

Source: The National Archives