We’re just over a week away from Thanksgiving, the holiday that focuses on gratitude, family and, let’s face it, food.

But if it looks like the annual event is taking place a little later this year, that’s because it is. Thanksgiving 2024 is on November 28th, which is technically as late as it can be. The reason is all due to two “C’s”: Congress and the calendar.

History of Thanksgiving

To understand the dates of Thanksgiving, you have to go back to the state.

On September 28, 1789, Congress passed a resolution asking the President to recommend a day of thanksgiving to the nation. A few days later, President George Washington issued a proclamation designating Thursday, November 26, 179 as a “Day of Public Thanksgiving,” marking the first time Thanksgiving was celebrated under the new Constitution, the National Archives explained.

Subsequent presidents issued Thanksgiving proclamations, but the dates and even months of the celebration varied and it was not until President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation that Thanksgiving was regularly commemorated on the last Thursday of November each year.

That all worked well until 1939, when the last Thursday of the month fell on the last day of the month. Concerned that the shortened Christmas shopping season could hurt the nation’s economic recovery, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the penultimate Thursday in November. Thirty-two states followed suit, but sixteen states did not, holding Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of the month, creating a hodgepodge of holidays.

That double holiday system persisted for the next two years: the president and part of the nation celebrated it on the second-to-last Thursday in November, while the rest of the country celebrated it the following week.

Congress decided to intervene. In 1941, the House passed a resolution declaring the last Thursday in November a legal holiday. The Senate changed that to make Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday, to account for years in which November has five Thursdays. The House agreed, President Roosevelt agreed, and Thanksgiving as we know it was established.

So why is Thanksgiving so late this year? That’s where the second “C” comes in. The first of November was on a Friday, which meant that the fourth Thursday was in the last possible week. There will be only two days – the 29th and the 30th – before December 1 and only 27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.