When is Thanksgiving 2023? This year, we celebrate Thanksgiving on November 23, 2023—the date changes year to year but it always falls on the fourth Thursday of the month. That's been the rule since President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill making it official in 1941, more than two years after he first decided to shake up the American tradition a bit in the name of holiday shopping and boosting the economy—and ruffling some feathers in the process.
When is Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Once the turkey has been eaten and the dishes are done, it's time to get shopping! Retailers typically have their biggest sales of the year on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This year, Black Friday will take place the day after Thanksgiving: November 24, and Cyber Monday follows on November 27.
Why does Thanksgiving fall on the fourth Thursday of November? It hasn't always. While the story of the first Thanksgiving was recorded in 1621, the holiday did not become an annual American tradition until the time of President Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, in hopes of bringing Americans together at the height of the Civil War, he declared Thanksgiving a national holiday celebrated on the last Thursday of November.
