News. Thanksgiving Day, annual national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people.

The holiday always occurs on the fourth Thursday of November, but the dates can differ based on leap years. We had a leap year in 2024. A Nov. 28 Thanksgiving happens roughly every five-to-six years, meaning that the next time we'll see a Thanksgiving on Nov.

The celebration was held by the Pilgrims, who had recently settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, to give thanks for a successful harvest and to mark their first year of survival in the New World.

George Washington decreed Thursday, November 26, as a day of public thanksgiving, but, in the years that followed, the holiday bounced informally from month to month and date to date. The last Thursday in November became the norm in 1863 with a declaration by Pres.