 The annual Thanksgiving holiday is a fairly recent creation . Throughout the early 19th century , the U.S. government had declared a particular day as a national day of Thanksgiving , but these were one @-@ time declarations meant to celebrate a significant event , such as victory in a battle . The northeastern states began adopting an annual day of Thanksgiving in November shortly after the end of the War of 1812 . Sarah Josepha Hale , editor of Boston 's Ladies ' Magazine , wrote editorials beginning in 1827 which called for the nationwide expansion of this annual day of thanksgiving to commemorate the Pilgrim 's first harvest feast . After nearly 40 years , Abraham Lincoln declared the first modern Thanksgiving to fall on the last Thursday in November in 1863 . Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Congress ultimately moved it to the fourth Thursday in November . After some sparring as to the date , the holiday was recognized by Congress as an official federal holiday in 1941 . 
