We’re a little more than a week away from Thanksgiving, the holiday centered around gratitude, family and, let’s face it, food.

But if it seems the annual event is a little later this year, it’s because it is. Thanksgiving 2024 is on Nov. 28 and that’s technically as late as it can be. The reason is all because of two “Cs” – Congress and the calendar.

History of Thanksgiving

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

On Sept. 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 naming Thursday, Nov. 26, 179 as a “Day of Publick Thanksgivin,” 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 wasn’t until President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Proclamation that Thanksgiving was regularly commemorated each year on the last Thursday of November.

That all worked well until 1939 when the last Thursday of the month fell on the last day of the month. Concerned the shortened Christmas shopping season could hurt the country’s economic recovery, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the second to last Thursday of November. Thirty-two states followed along but 16 states didn’t and kept Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of the month, creating a holiday hodgepodge.

That dual holiday system continued 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 step in. In 1941, the House passed a resolution declaring the last Thursday in November as the legal holiday. The Senate amended that to make Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday to take into account years when 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 the fourth Thursday fell on the last possible week. There will be only two days – the 29th and 30th – before Dec. 1 and only 27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.