FDR and Thanksgiving Date Manipulation

[Phidippides]

The holiday season came in a hurry around Thanksgiving time this year.  Lights up, music playing.....too early, in my book.  It's as if after Thanksgiving, the dam is broken and the promotions begin while we've still got 1/4 of November to take care of.

I recall hearing, though, that FDR temporarily changed Thanksgiving from the fourth Thursday in November to the third Thursday in November.  I believe this was done to give businesses extra time for Christmas selling (probably during the Depression).  However, this was later changed back to the fourth Thursday, where we're at right now.

I'm glad Thanksgiving was pushed back later in the month.  There's nothing like diluting the Christmas spirit by extending it across half of November!

[Stumpfoot]

Just another attempt to commercialize the holidays.

[Phidippides]

I just caught this which touches on FDR and Thanksgiving:

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving forward by one week, believing that doing so would help bolster retail sales in the midst of the Great Depression. This led to much upheaval and protest, causing some to deride the holiday as Franksgiving. The word, coined by Atlantic City mayor Thomas Taggart, is a portmanteau of Franklin and Thanksgiving.

Who would have thought there was a word for it?  Franksgiving it was!

[Stumpfoot]

Well he did say a chicken in every pot.

[Phidippides]

Time to bring the Thanksgiving threads back to life.  It is interesting anyway....."Franksgiving".  A word to mention to your friends or family while gathered around the table!

[Wally]

Well he did say a chicken in every pot.

Wasn't that Hoover?

[Phidippides]

Yeah, it looks like it was Hoover, not FDR (actually the Republicans, not Hoover himself).

Thanksgiving this year is the earliest it can be, since the first day of the month was a Thursday.  Can you imagine if it was still on the third Thursday - November 15th this year?  Way too early.

Well anyway, happy Thanksgiving all!

[Wally]

Be thankful then you're not Canadian; T'giving is the second Monday in October [at least since 1957], eh?

Cheers of that day and this,
Wally

[Phidippides]

I'm guessing the Canadian Thanksgiving is quite different than American Thanksgiving, right?  I didn't even know they had the holiday.

As for me, I'm glad that Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November, not the third.  That would just be too early.

[Wally]

I'm guessing the Canadian Thanksgiving is quite different than American Thanksgiving, right?  I didn't even know they had the holiday.

The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean. Frobisher's Thanksgiving was not for harvest but homecoming. He had safely returned from a search for the Northwest Passage, avoiding the later fate of Henry Hudson and Sir John Franklin. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. The feast was one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations by Europeans in North America. Frobisher was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him ? Frobisher Bay. --from Wikipedia

As for me, I'm glad that Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November, not the third.  That would just be too early.

How about the Christmas music that started about Halloween? Retailers are pushing the beginning of the shopping season as hard as they can. Perhaps President Obama will consider a similar idea as a new stimulus?

[Aetheling]

Well he did say a chicken in every pot.

Wasn't that Hoover?

None of them ! It was the Green gallant Henry IV (1553 ? 1610) when he adopted policies and undertook projects to improve the lives of all subjects, which made him one of the country's most popular rulers ever:

 "If God spares me, I will ensure that there is no working man in my kingdom who does not have the means to have a chicken in the pot every Sunday!"

[Aetheling]

BTW about the Mayflower, the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving, I've read an interesting story:

The First Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God for helping the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony survive the brutal winter. However God didn't show up (as usual) but instead the Plymouth settlers celebrated a harvest feast after a successful growing season thanks to a native.

In fact, a Patuxet Native American who resided with the Wampanoag tribe, taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate in these new lands. That Native American was Squanto who finally settled with Pilgrims at the site of his former village, which the English named Plymouth.  He helped them recover from an extremely hard first winter by teaching them techniques to increase food production: by fertilizing crops. He also showed them the best places to catch fish and eels. He was critical to their survival.

The Pilgrims set apart a day to celebrate at Plymouth immediately after their first harvest, in 1621. At the time, this was not regarded as a Thanksgiving observance; harvest festivals existed in English and Wampanoag tradition alike.

How ironic History reversed each roles just like in The First Thanksgiving, painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863?1930) 

[Wally]

This from the Hoover Archives: http://hoover.archives.gov/info/faq.html#chicken:

During the 1928 presidential campaign, did Herbert Hoover really promise "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage?"

The Hoover campaign used a variety of slogans in 1928 including "Vote for Prosperity," "Lest We Forget" (referring to Hoover's World War I relief work), and "Who but Hoover?"

Other slogans were introduced by Hoover supporters, often without direct input from Mr. Hoover. The link between Hoover and the phrase "a chicken in every pot" can be traced to a paid advertisement which apparently originated with the Republican National Committee, who inserted it into a number of newspapers during the 1928 campaign. The ad described in detail how the Republican administrations of Harding and Coolidge had "reduced hours and increased earning capacity, silenced discontent, put the proverbial 'chicken in every pot.' And a car in every backyard, to boot." The ad concluded that a vote for Hoover would be a vote for continued prosperity.

Hoover did make a variety of optimistic statements during the campaign, such as, "the slogan of progress is changing from the full dinner pail to the full garage," and "given a chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, and we shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this Nation," but Hoover never promised "a chicken in every pot."

Sigh... another icon bites the dust. 

[Aetheling]

Seems that Hoover was fond of History  

Just like: The empire on which the sun never sets attributed to Elisabeth or Charles V or even Alexander the Great!
Even kings copy each other if this can serve their interests     Especially from Hoover !!! 

[Phidippides]

Yesterday was Franksgiving.