How Thanksgiving became a federal holiday and what that means

Turkey lovers, football fans and parade goers in Detroit and New York might believe having Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November is practically written into the Constitution, a guaranteed day-off bestowed upon us by the founders in their Pilgrim-loving glee on which to gorge yourself and take a long nap on the nearest couch.

Thanksgiving in America does go back that far − further, in fact − but it's only been officially set as a federal holiday on that day in perpetuity since the 1940s. Even at that, it only, like other federal holidays, guarantees it as a day off with pay for federal workers (or, as became the standard, with premiums being paid for those on duty that day).

The states have adopted it for their own workforces, of course, and most private businesses − covering 97% of workers − follow the practice. But private businesses aren't obligated to do so and states are free to set their own holidays. While the federal government has never suggested it has the authority to require an annual holiday for all workers in the 50 states, it's clear that most private businesses feel it's worth it, for employee morale if nothing else.

If anything, the Thanksgiving holiday − mythologized as being modeled on a harvest feast between the Pilgrims and Wampanoag people in 1621 in what the Europeans called Plymouth and celebrated at various times and places both before and thereafter − has chartered a complicated course toward becoming settled custom in the U.S.

Thanksgiving used to be a pretty common affair

According to historians, it was far from unusual for early colonists to declare days of thanksgiving, especially around harvest time, but also in some cases helping to seal treaties between them and Native Americans, or give praise for a ship of supplies making it across the Atlantic. In one notable case, it was proclaimed in Massachusetts to give thanks for a victory that led to a Native American village in Connecticut being wiped out, with hundreds of deaths. There is even evidence of an earlier thanksgiving than that 1621 gathering, in 1619, in Virginia, though it apparently didn't involve a feast.

Most of these thanksgivings were largely religious affairs, full of prayer and giving thanks to God (including, in some cases, for some pretty cruel outcomes).

But historians say it is a mistake generally to trace those earlier events to the modern holiday tradition, even though the Continental Congress in 1777 (right after the American's Revolutionary War victory at the Battle of Saratoga) issued a proclamation for "solemn thanksgiving" in asking, among other things, that God continue "to smile upon us in the Prosecution of a just and necessary War, for the Defense and Establishment of our unalienable Rights and Liberties."

In the years that followed the early Congresses recommended various days of thanksgiving to the states, along with suggestions that "recreations unsuitable to the purpose of such a solemnity may be omitted." President George Washington − not without disagreement from some anti-federalists, Thomas Jefferson among them, who thought such days improperly mingled religion with government − declared the last Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving, as did some other presidents (not Jefferson) after him, for a time, though various states used different days for the occasional practice for decades to come.

Eventually, Congress and succeeding presidents got out of the thanksgiving business, however.

Ultimately, it was President Abraham Lincoln, amid the Civil War, who declared the last Thursday of November that year to be "a day of thanksgiving and praise for our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens," he and other leaders having been urged repeatedly by Sarah Josepha Hale, an influential editor of a women's magazine and the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," to do so.

That, too, was received badly by some who felt it sounded too overtly puritan during a time of regional and political upheaval, but Lincoln − who also began the tradition of pardoning a turkey at the behest of his son, as reported by Politico in a recent story − felt like it could bring parts of the nation together.

A federal holiday, with benefits, emerges

There were plenty of people, especially in the South, who ignored Lincoln's proclamation but he kept the tradition of naming a national day of Thanksgiving, with other presidents following his lead for much of the next century, either adopting the last Thursday in November or the first Thursday in December (with rare exceptions) for the holiday, as explained by a study done by the Congressional Research Service.

That, however, in and of itself didn't give anyone a day off.

In 1870, Congress passed the first federal holiday law, initially intended to cover only those federal employees in Washington D.C., recognizing as holidays New Year's Day, Independence Day, Christmas Day and "any day appointed or recommended by the President of the United States as a day of public fasting or thanksgiving."

Already being observed in various states, albeit at different times and places, the tradition spread. (Even before it became a state, Michigan, at the call of then-territorial Gov. Lewis Cass, proclaimed the first Thanksgiving in 1829.) Over the years, questions about whether federal holidays were granted to all federal employees − and with pay − were resolved, though that took some decades.

And a question of timing remained.

In 1939 − five years after the Lions started their tradition of playing on Thanksgiving, by the way − President Franklin Delano Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the third Thursday in November, apparently believing it would help extend the Christmas shopping season. But some states balked, leading to a congressional resolution and Thanksgiving being fixed a couple years later on the fourth Thursday in November.

As to why Thanksgiving is on a Thursday to begin with, the history is a little murky. The Continental Congress set aside a Thursday in 1777, as did George Washington later. The Old Farmer's Almanac posits that Thursday was a "typical day for lectures in New England, with ministers giving a religious talk each Thursday afternoon."

A few more tidbits about Thanksgiving and the holidays

Canada has its own Thanksgiving tradition, though it's celebrated on the second Monday in October, not in November.

Coincidentally, that's when Americans are celebrating Columbus Day (which has been a federal holiday since 1968) or Indigenous Peoples' Day (which, while not a federal holiday, has received notice from the White House and by many cities and states, including Michigan, to recognize indigenous peoples' achievements and draw attention to the violent colonization experienced by Native Americans).

Canada's Thanksgiving tradition is linked to an event even earlier than 1621, with an English explorer giving thanks and communion for safe passage to what is now Nunavut in 1578.

The U.S. now has 12 recognized federal holidays and while some (Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day) are widely recognized along with most of the previously mentioned ones as accepted and observed holidays, some others (George Washington's Birthday, Juneteenth, Columbus Day and Inauguration Day in years following a presidential election) are not as widely observed.

Michigan, by the way, observes all of those with the exception of Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day and Inauguration Day as holidays (though it observes President's Day rather than George Washington's Birthday, which is the case in some other states as well) but also adds the Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, as days off for its state employees.

This fall the state House passed legislation to add seven more state holidays, including holidays already celebrated by Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and East Asian American communities. The state Senate hasn't acted on the bill package yet.

Even with that, the number of days designated as holidays lags many other countries around the world. According to various reports, Iran has 26 recognized vacation days and Cambodia has 28. Nepal, the reports say, has a whopping 35 recognized vacation days.

As Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band sang, "I think I'm going to Katmandu."

Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How Thanksgiving became a federal holiday