How does United States mark Harvest and Gratitude?
Thanksgiving Day
- Local date
- November 26, 2026
- When is it?
- The fourth Thursday of November
Thanksgiving in the United States is a federal holiday on the fourth Thursday of November. Its centre of gravity now is the family table and long-distance travel rather than farming itself, and the shopping that follows often draws more attention than the day. Some treat it as tradition, some as a founding story that needs re-examining, and some households simply use it as one of the few days a year when everyone can be in the same room.
What is this topic?
Whether the harvest becomes a holiday, and who gets to define it, is answered five different ways: the United States built a federal holiday around the family table; India's Pongal is timed by the Tamil calendar and the sun's entry into Capricorn, and the pot of rice is the rite itself; Brazil ties it to three saints' days in June; mainland China created a farmers' festival by State Council approval in 2018; and Japan rewrote a prewar imperial harvest rite into a national day for thanking labour.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.