Should Thanksgiving Be Canceled?

Is it time to cancel Thanksgiving?

From politics to inflation to in-laws, there are plenty of reasons why families across America might be thinking twice about turkey day this time of year. In fact, a recent survey shows that only 38% of Americans plan to host guests for the holidays this year - down from 57% of Americans last year. And the precipitous drop is probably not just because of Great Aunt Martha’s mysterious shredded carrot Jell-O mold.

But for all the reasons millions of Americans might say no to Thanksgiving with the family this time of year, there’s one few have considered, but which one founding father believed wholeheartedly - that celebrating Thanksgiving actually constitutes a grievous violation of separation of church and state.

Jefferson and Thanksgiving

Though Thanksgiving was not formally established as a national holiday until 1863 by Abraham Lincoln, it had been widely (if informally) observed by Americans since 1777, following the Continental Army’s victory over the British at the Battle of Saratoga. 

That December, the Continental Congress declared "national days of prayer, humiliation, and thanksgiving," a practice which continued through the presidencies of George Washington and John Adams. At the time, these informal days of thanksgiving - with a lowercase t - were not affixed to a particular date on the calendar; Rather, it was declared when it was determined necessary to uplift American morale, typically in November or December. 

Presidents Washington and Adams both declared numerous thanksgivings, but our nation’s third president, Thomas Jefferson, was famously not a fan, and stopped the thanksgiving declarations entirely.

But why? Jefferson, a deist who believed strongly in separation of church and state, found the idea of ‘giving thanks’ a little too close to religious prayer for his tastes. 

When Reverend Samuel Miller wrote to Jefferson in 1808 recommending he endorse a national thanksgiving day of prayer and fasting, Jefferson responded that he had “no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the general government.”

And though it did not make the final draft of his famous letter to the Danbury Baptists, Jefferson initially wrote about his hesitance to endorse anything which might have even the faintest appearance of piety.

“I have refrained from prescribing even occasional performances of devotion prescribed indeed legally where an Executive is the legal head of a national church,” he wrote, though this language was removed in the final draft. It was replaced with his famous declaration that the First Amendment was designed to build “a wall of separation between Church & State.”

The First Amendment

Jefferson paid a political price for his thanksgiving-free presidency, as well as his silence on why he stopped the practice. Just like today, back then days of thanksgiving were incredibly popular, and Jefferson was constantly targeted by political opponents as “a howling atheist” and “enemy of religion.”

Jefferson never publicly revealed his reasoning - that he viewed a formal thanksgiving declaration by a president to be a violation of the First Amendment - and he lamented to Attorney General Levi Lincoln that he had “long wished to find, of saying why I do not proclaim fastings & thanksgivings, as my predecessors did.”

“I know it will give great offence to the New England clergy,” he wrote, “But the advocate for religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from them.”

Jefferson stuck to his principles, and did not declare a single thanksgiving during his presidency, leaving Americans with eight long, thanksgiving-free years. The practice of informal yearly thanksgivings was quickly revived by his successor, James Madison, and the first official Thanksgiving as a national holiday was on August 6th, 1863, declared by President Abraham Lincoln following Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Later in the year, Lincoln proclaimed another Thanksgiving - this time, for the last Thursday in November.

'Franksgiving'

Thanksgiving was celebrated on the final Thursday in November until 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt, hoping to stimulate the economy with an extra week of holiday shopping, pushed Thanksgiving one week earlier, to the second-to-last Thursday of November. This was derisively referred to as "Franksgiving" by Roosevelt's critics, and nearly two dozen state governors declined to celebrate the earlier 'Franksgiving' (though three states celebrated both!).

'Franksgiving' controversially continued through 1941, but after the Commerce Department noticed no noticable increase in holiday spending, Roosevelt permanently proclaimed Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November. And with that, the final piece of the Thanksgiving pie as we know it today was completed.

Very few out there hold Jefferson’s views on Thanksgiving now, but it’s something to think about this turkey day. And who knows? Maybe bringing up this fascinating bit of American history might even distract from some of the political conversations likely to spring up ‘round the Thanksgiving table.