Thanksgiving Becomes a National Holiday

Are your children aware that a New Hampshire woman, Sarah Josepha Hale, was responsible for Thanksgiving becoming a national holiday? 

Image: sxc.hu

Yes, the first Thanksgiving, from which this  holiday of thankfulness originated, took place in Plymouth, MA.

However, it wasn’t celebrated nationally until Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of “Godey’s Lady’s Book,” decided that Thanksgiving should become a national holiday. She initiated a campaign to have a day in late fall set aside for us to give thanks for our harvests and many blessings.

From 1846 to 1863, she wrote letters to presidents, governors, and any influential people she could think of. Many editorials appeared in her magazine, urging the recognition of this celebration as a holiday.

Finally President Abraham Lincoln listened to Mrs. Hale. He decided that a day of thanksgiving in autumn also might help create harmony in the nation midst the Civil War.

In 1863, he declared Thanksgiving Day would be the last Thursday in November.  In 1941, Congress passed a resolution which changed Thanksgiving from the last Thursday in November to the fourth Thursday of that month. Since then, the fourth Thursday, which sometimes is the last one, has officially been Thanksgiving.