Why is Thanksgiving celebrated on a Thursday [Video]

WASHINGTON — Every fourth Thursday in November families across the country gather around the dinner table to celebrate Thanksgiving. However, the date we celebrate has changed many times throughout the centuries and not every change was a welcome one. 

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, it is widely believed the harvest feast shared between a group of indigenous people and pilgrims happened in the fall of 1621. It would be another 320 years before Thanksgiving would become a Federal holiday. 

In 1789, George Washington declared Nov. 26 to be a day of thanksgiving but the holiday would continue to change dates for decades until Pres. Abraham Lincoln decided the holiday would be celebrated on the last Thursday of November. 

However, less than 80 years later, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to move Thanksgiving to a …