Happy Thanksgiving or Is It? In
1939, Franklin Delano Roosevelt responed to pressure from the National Retail Dry Goods Association to move the official date of Thanksgiving back one week to the next-to-last Thursday of the month. FDR hoped that this would enliven the economy by adding one week to the Christmas shopping season, but he received considerable
political flak for tampering with what many viewed as a sacred religious holiday. (Thanksgiving is considered sacred even though it only became a national holiday due to lobbying by
the editor of a 19th century woman's magazine.) New Deal-era Republicans were especially bothered by the calendar change and one essayist at the
American Enterprise Institute still seems to carry a grudge. Congress later resolved the issue by passing a resolution in
1941 that designated Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November.
posted by jonp72
on Nov 26, 2002 -
11 comments
