United States President Abraham Lincoln proclaims November 26 as a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated annually on the final Thursday of November. Following the Franksgiving controversy from 1939 to 1941, it has been observed on the fourth Thursday in 1942 and subsequent years.

“Franksgiving” was an informal term used to describe the unusual Thanksgiving holiday controversy in the United States in 1939. Traditionally celebrated on the last Thursday of November, Thanksgiving faced a schedule disruption when President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved it a week earlier, to the second-to-last Thursday of the month. This decision, influenced by pressure from retailers, aimed to extend the holiday shopping season during the Great Depression, boosting the economy. However, the change sparked widespread confusion and backlash. Critics accused Roosevelt of tampering with tradition, and many states refused to adopt the new date, leading to two competing Thanksgivings in 1939 and 1940. Some states observed the “new” Thanksgiving, dubbed “Franksgiving,” while others stuck to the traditional date. The conflict eventually subsided when Congress passed a law in 1941, officially designating Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November.