Many people in Florida are gearing up to celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday.
However, a decades-long fight nearly caused the holiday to be celebrated an entire week later, according to state records.
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Before the 1800s, Thanksgiving was celebrated differently depending on which region people lived in.
While George Washington proclaimed in 1789 that a “day of public thanksgiving” would take place on Thursday, Nov. 26, many of the presidents and governors who followed his presidency had different dates each year.
For Florida, this changed in 1850 when then-Gov. Thomas Brown announced that Thanksgiving would take place on the last Thursday of the month.
However, Brown’s successor changed the holiday to the fourth Thursday in 1855, and it was changed again to the third Thursday the following year. It was a confusing period for the holiday.
Eventually, President Abraham Lincoln declared that the last Thursday in November would be the nationally recognized Thanksgiving Day in 1863. This continued over the next seven decades, with many state governors making similar proclamations.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
In the early 1900s, many retailers enjoyed the big boost in business that followed Thanksgiving, as customers began to shop for Christmas once the holiday was over (something that’s still true today).
In 1939, though, the last Thursday in November just so happened to fall on Nov. 30, which meant that these retailers had much less time to enjoy this Christmas-fueled shopping blitz.
Given that many of these businesses still suffered the effects of the Great Depression, retailers began petitioning states and the federal government to push Thanksgiving back a week.
At the time, President Franklin Roosevelt agreed with the change, and so in October, he proclaimed that Thanksgiving would be celebrated on Nov. 23 in 1939, and Nov. 21 in 1940.
There were plenty of people who welcomed the change, though many railed against it — including former Florida Gov. Fred Cone. Cone, who indicated that he preferred tradition and instead set the date on Nov. 30.
One poem written at the time demonstrates just how riled up some people were over the controversy.
“Pouf on tradition!
I, your master, Sir, am on my way,
Pfft to Abe and Washington,
Pfft to THEIR Thanksgiving Day,
I’ll prove I’m greater than either one.
A third term, I’ll also seek,
And when I’m IN, without a doubt
No one will DARE to make a squeak,
There’ll be NO way to get me out,
Another task that come, whate’er betide,
Change Christmas to MY day of birth.
I’ll laugh at ‘Hit’ and ‘Musso’ with great mirth
For God, Himself, has moved aside.”
Poem sent to Gov. Fred Cone criticizing President Roosevelt's decision to change Thanksgiving's date. "Hit" and "Musso" could refer to the German dictator Adolf Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, respectively.
Florida wasn’t the only state to do this, either. Twenty-two other states followed suit, observing Thanksgiving on Nov. 30.
Cone received a lot of support for his decision, receiving many letters from constituents who felt the same way.
On the other hand, many criticized Cone’s choice, claiming there was now much greater confusion about when the holiday should be celebrated.
In fact, this was the exact issue that several industries at the time had to deal with.
Calendar manufacturers printed their calendars two years in advance, so having a shifted holiday made their calendars for 1939 and 1940 obsolete. The president of one such company wrote the Roosevelts to discuss these struggles.
Magazines wrote to the governor for clarifications so they could properly inform their readers. A national teachers conference held the weekend after Thanksgiving had to figure out when to hold the meeting. The Florida Bankers Association decided to observe both Nov. 23 and Nov. 30 to minimize confusion for workers.
Despite the flak, Cone held firm to Nov. 30 as the official day for Thanksgiving in Florida. As a result, many towns in the state chose the same course as the bankers association, simply observing both dates as holidays.
However, this continued to be a problem going into 1940. Many Florida residents tried to figure out when they should celebrate Thanksgiving, and several schools wrote Cone asking for clarification so that they could properly schedule football games.
Once again, Florida — joined by 15 other states — decided to go with the last Thursday in November for Thanksgiving.
In 1941, Roosevelt relented, admitting that the change wasn’t worth all of the hassle.
The U.S. Congress took over the issue, with the House of Representatives drafting legislation to set Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November. However, the Senate amended the resolution so that November months with five Thursdays would instead observe Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday.
Since then, every Thanksgiving in the U.S. has been observed on these days.
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