When is Thanksgiving Day 2026?

Thanksgiving is an annual harvest-celebration holiday observed primarily in the United States (fourth Thursday of November) and Canada (second Monday of October). The American holiday traces its popular origin to a 1621 feast shared between the Pilgrim colonists of Plymouth Colony and the Wampanoag people of the Pokanoket tribe — though historians note that such harvest celebrations were common across many cultures and the 1621 event was not called Thanksgiving at the time.

The modern American Thanksgiving was established as a national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, during the Civil War, as a day of national unity and gratitude. In 1941 Congress fixed the date as the fourth Thursday of November. Canada's Thanksgiving developed separately, influenced by European harvest festivals, and has been observed on the second Monday of October since 1957.

The centrepiece of American Thanksgiving is a large family meal traditionally featuring roasted turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, begun in 1924, and the start of the Christmas shopping season ("Black Friday" the following day) have become inseparable cultural associations with the holiday. Versions of Thanksgiving are also observed in Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and the Netherlands.