A Democrat Thanksgiving and a Republican Thanksgiving sounds like something that would happen in America today and not the 20th century. Really puts into perspective how divisive politics is by nature and is not just a current trend.
Especially divisive with the American system. Having a de facto two-party system with a first-past-the-polls democratic election that's in turn controlled by a first-past-the-polls electoral college system... is insane. It's just *begging* for candidates to divide and conquer in the most deceitful ways... and so most of them do.
Yeah, and yellow journalism etc. people were always divisive and horrible. I think humanity's saving graces are modern psychology, and our interconnectedness that helps us see multiple perspectives.
2:51 I'm Indian and Hindu so all our holidays are ancient and based on the lunar calendar, which is why the date changes every year, so it's actually pretty normal for us to see a holiday whose date isnt fixed. (For example, we actually Google every year, "When is Diwali this year", and make plans aroudn whichever date it falls on). 😂
Hanukkah is the same way. It's based on the Hebrew calendar, so for us with Jewish ancestry in the Western world, using the Gregorian calendar, Google is our source of "When is Hanukkah 2023?" answers 😂
I'm Catholic, and we have a church calendar that is sedimented together from the ancient Jewish calendar and later ones, I was curious if anyone else in the comments was used to the experience of, "Google when X is so you can start planning," hahha. I watching this and thinking, "Man, if he thinks fourth Thursday is confusing, he should try figuring out when which Solemnity is, and when it's celebrated on the closest Sunday instead of the weekday, and when it isn't, and when which feast day overrides another feast day when it's moved to the Sunday day," hahaha.
America being ostensibly Christian also has Easter which wanders around March and April far more randomly than (secular) Thanksgiving. The date of the calculation of Easter involves, you guessed it, the phase of the Moon (or rather it started out that way and now it's more regularised and mathematical, and different denominations use different calculations, but it's still pretty loony. Er. Lunar.)
"at one point there was a different Thanksgiving for Democrats and Republicans" is just one of those facts that makes me think today isn't as bad as I imagined... But also that tomorrow could be way worse
I believe evacuation day is still a state holiday in Massachusetts. My elementary school growing up used it as the day where we practiced our school shooter evacuation drills, which is a very American mix of colonial era and modern era history
Yes, Evacuation Day is a holiday, but only in Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. It is always on March 17. It commemorates the British evacuating the City of Boston and ending their siege, rather than the evacuation of the British from the whole country.
Not gonna lie, having a holiday called Evacuation Day and using it to practice evacuation drills is kinda funny, and also very american indeed (it's still sad to learn that having drills for school shootings are a thing over there. I'm not from the US and this is the first time I hear about them).
I'm just chillin, drinking a beer, and feeling very thankful for the modern medicine that helped Hank overcome his "injury"... big love to all of you ❤
Hank, you've literally given my husband a Christmas present. EVERY SINGLE YEAR since we've been been together he asks me at least once "What day is Thanksgiving again?" This year I had a keychain made for him on Etsy with his initials on the front and "Thanksgiving is always Thursday" on the back. I'm going to put a QR code with this video in his stocking with the keychain. Thanks! 😂
"Fourth Thursday" makes sense to me. Simpler to understand than the rules for the new holiday Ireland introduced last year. (If the 1st of February is a Friday, then that's the holiday; otherwise, it's the first Monday in February.) A lot of Toastmasters clubs will organise their meetings twice a month, and "First and Third Thursdays" or "Second and Fourth Tuesdays" are a common way to do it, so I'm used to thinking in those terms.
This Thanksgiving & Black Friday feels less commercial to me because we're having our first human baby, and we aren't just purchasing things for ourselves, but some big ticket items that will be conveniences as new parents which really feels like it's more for her. A deep freezer for storing milk, an apartment sized fridge for upstairs to have bottles and snacks closer. Yesterday, we played a game to reveal the baby's name. It feels less like opposing messages with this new family member to focus on. Due in February, this is not baby's first Christmas.
Hank ranting about when FDR just dropped that Thanksgiving was a week earlier than expected reminded me of working HR in the government the day Juneteenth became a recognized federal holiday. On June 17th. SO much timecard chaos.
You know what's really weird? In Canada their biggest sales of the year is on Boxing Day. That's right, the day after Christmas! That always seemed strange to me all of the years that I lived there.
It's a combination of everyone trying to clear out leftover stock and "Oh hey look, everyone just got a bunch of money for christmas, lets make sure they spend it here!"
Same in Australia. All the sales started on Boxing Day. But the last 5-10 years we’ve started seeing more Black Friday sales happening and now this year it just seems like it was always that way.
I never bought anything on those days because I wanted to use what little economic influence I had to discourage businesses from being open, but thanksbutIwantmoregiving is my favorite spectator sport.
My birthday is November 25th, so it will ALWAYS land in Thanksgiving week and sometimes on Thanksgiving day. This is annoying because it's about being humble and grateful, but also I want to celebrate myself and sometimes be a little obnoxious. For reasons, I also got married in the same week, so it's a solid week of celebration.
I almost thought the answer was going to be like a reverse Election Day situation, where Thanksgiving is the Thursday before the last Friday in November, so Black Friday can always be in November.
Canadian Thanksgiving Day is on the second Monday of October each year and there’s No Huge Post-Thanksgiving Shopping Craze (according to The Old Farmer's Almanac). I don't do the Black Friday shopping anymore because there is a big difference between wanting and needing something. Too many wanted things get used a few times, then put away and forgotten.
The UK's daylight savings change rule (when it was followed* and before EU harmonisation) used to be the Sunday following the fourth Saturday of October and March, unless that Sunday was Easter in which case it would be the Sunday before. Now, in common with the rest of Europe, it's always the last Sunday of those months. * That was the *default* rule. Parliament usually set the dates each year using secondary legislation, and didn't always follow it.
In my area school used to start the day after Labor Day. But they couldn't say that, that would be too easy, so instead they said it would start on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in September.
I'm from the UK and I'm a permanent resident of the US (can apply for citizenship next year). We are definitely coming back. It's only a matter of time til we re-colonise you! :D
and it's not the only "weird" holiday date in November; election day is the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, so instead of ranging from the 1st to the 7th, it ranges from the 2nd to the 8th
In the movie Holiday Inn, in the introduction to the Thanksgiving section, a cartoon turkey jumps back and forth between two Thursdays on a November calendar. If you've wondered, this is why.
We still have an evacuation day in Boston. It just celebrates the British leaving the city after an 11 month siege. Now we mostly recognize it with… free parking?
It would be, except that on years where it’s early like this, there’s actually an extra Sunday between Thanksgiving Sunday and the First Sunday of Advent, so it ends up not mattering for that purpose if it’s the last Thursday of November or the fourth. (This is all because Christmas Eve isn’t actually a liturgical holiday unto itself, but rather the vigil of Christmas-i.e., the evening service the day before. So when the 24th falls on a Sunday, it’s still the Fourth Sunday of Advent.)
I think FDR did a lot of good things (and also some other things), but I also can't help but see him getting elected four times, only leaving office in death, in the context of the global movement away from democracy in and around the 1930s. Our presidents are supposed to hold office for a while then step down.
I live not far from Warm Springs, GA so I've been to FDR's Little White House several times. It's where he got treatment for his polio & where he died. There's a museum too about him & people close to him. It's all really neat but, of course, it only mentions the good things. So it's always crazy to me finding out something about him that's negative because I've been used to looking at him through rose-colored glasses. My first thought watching this video was "why didn't they ever mention it at the museum!" lol.
Just looking at your thumbnail got me thinking Hank - why do American calendars go Sunday - Sunday? Sunday's part of the weekend here in Europe, our calendars generally go Monday - Monday
Thank you for confirming I was not crazy. When I was a kid, TGD landed on Nov 30, so in recent years, I gave up knowing when it was, though I am Canadian. For us, it lands on the 2nd Monday every year.
Dear Hank, you sometimes seem to have so much pent up energy it just jumps out at the nearest thing, like static electricity jumping to whatever item is closest. (I'm reminded of your invective against orange juice.) The 4th Thursday is no big deal, especially considering the convoluted way of determining that other November event, Election Day. So relax! Anyway i hope your discharge of energy has calmed you down a bit. :-) (And i wish i had half the energy you have.) Tschüss
I'm not into shopping like I was when I was in my 20s... I bought less then $20 worth of food today... a loaf of bread, a pound of butter, a package of sausages, and a package of small tortillas. My budget is super skinny this season.... send help!
The confusion was well illustrated in the Movie "Holiday Inn" when the turkey jumps from one date to another. Originally, I thought the turkey was trying to avoid being dinner, but no!
Good call. Considering most Stores are Lying about Their black Friday sales, And jack Up their Prices the Month prior, So they Can discount Them, or Those items Were already On sale And they Just changed The signs Around. (items That are On sale 30+ weeks Of the Year)
@@jrpipik What four-day weekend? I had Thursday off work, but not Friday. I could have taken Friday off as a normal PTO, but then I could do that any time without a holiday, too 😁
try being brazilian (especially from rio, bahia or pernambuco) and trying to keep up with carnival because it needs to be 40 days before easter and somehow it fluctuates wildly
A non-fixed holiday isn't too weird in the UK either! Easter Sunday is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox (sometimes called the Paschal full moon) and YES THAT IS THE REAL WAY WE DECIDE THE DATE!!! Shrove Tuesday always happens 47 days before that too. Not to mention, fathers day is the third Sunday of June, and Mothers day is the second sunday of may.
I've always wondered why some holidays are on a specific date like December 25th or February 14th but then other holidays are the blank day of the month so like the last Thursday of November or the first Sunday of April. Doesn't matter what the number is.
Most of my life was consumed by working as a nurse...there are no real holidays outside the days off,then acknowledged sleepily in swratpants and apologies to the kid. Thanks for explaining what I missed
I would like to petition to move Thanksgiving to some time in the fourth week of October. That is 8 weeks after most universities begin their 16-week semesters. Everyone is selling Christmas stuff at that time anyway.
I hope you realize that no matter which Thursday it's on -- as long as it's always on a Thursday (this would be true of any other day of the week) it's always going to vary by up to 6 days. The "anywhere from the X to the Y" problem is inherent in the calendar. We can either keep the day of the week the same and vary the date, or we can keep the date the same (like Christmas or Independence Day) and vary the day of the week. Not both.
every time you guys recommend your products, i cry in eastern europe and currency conversion rates. but please keep up the good work! the stuff you make is extremely lovely and it deserves to be popular
We put up Christmas Decorations on Black Friday, and listen to a ton of Nat King Cole and Company. Our family avoids Black Friday shopping like the plague. It's more the official start of the Christmas season.
Lots of holidays are Xth weekday of Y month specifically to control what weekdays they do or do not fall on. Off the top of my head, there's labor day, memorial day, mother's day, father's, and while not a holiday, Election day is always on a Tuesday so that it's never on a Sunday or Saturday.
I learned we are the same age! That's kinda fun since you're as Celebrity as RUclips gets, and way cooler than normal celebs since you know things! May we both last at least another 43 years!
it seems totally normal to me to have holidays that move around the gregorian calendar, but i’m jewish. (easter also moves around, and sometimes the eastern and western easters diverge, so it’s not just us.)
This was a delightful history lesson. I did not know any of this! I've never personally had a hard time with the fourth Thursday rule, and compared to holidays that follow a lunar calendar the variance isn't _that_ wild, but given your feelings about the number of days in months, this totally tracks for you.
Typically, when there are only four Thursday in November, Advent begins three days after Thanksgiving (on Sunday). Every few years there is an extra week before Advent begins, the years there are five Thursdays in November. This year the fourth Sunday in Advent falls on Christmas Eve. Last year the fourth Sunday was a full week before Christmas.
The one nice thing about the 2nd last Thursday that the old set-up could never allow: once in a glorious while we geeks get a double holiday. Doctor Who Day Thanksgiving.
Tbh... I thought that as well. Even though we just had it on the fourth literally yesterday, my brain didn't make the connection. Brains are fragile, weird, squishy things.
Fun fact: There are 52 Black Fridays a year at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. No shopping involved, sadly. It's the first Friday of training for any new platoon that starts up. And it usually involves Drill Instructors screaming at recruits, throwing things around, having the recruits run back and forth the retrieve items, and a lot of chaos. I went through one of those Black Fridays 22 years ago.
We have a holiday here, Auckland Anniversary Day, which is on the Monday closest to January 29th (when William Hobson didn't proclaim the creation of the new colony, which was actually the following day). This means that it is entirely possible for the holiday to fall in February, which it did in 2021. This is extremely confusing.
Hank I think you meant the last Thursday of November instead of the last day of November when talking about Lincoln and reconstruction. Maybe not. Maybe I was confused which is highly plausible.
I didn't know that this was an issue for people, I had always been taught that Thanksgiving was the fourth Thursday and not the last one. It's Easter (and as a result Mardi Gras) that always gives me trouble 🥴🥴🥴
As a Canadian, I was so confused by the Magic Tree House book "Thanksgiving on Thursday" growing up. Like, why would Thanksgiving be on a Thursday? I thought this video was going to explain why American Thanksgiving is, inexplicably, on a Thursday, rather than a Friday or Monday which would make it a long weekend.
I guess you maybe did implicitly explain why. Because Thanksgiving took over for evacuation day, which was based on a specific event presumably that *did* take place on a Thursday? Is that right?
It's extremely common in the US for Thanksgiving to be the first day of an even longer weekend. That's why so many people are free to shop on Black Friday.
@@luketeeninga7106 Which is inherent in it being a day for shopping. The reason for all the deals was originally to get people out to shop on a day would they otherwise wouldn't. But doing that inherently means that you have to have people working. So commercialism is also a big reason why Thanksgiving is not a four day weekend for many.
@@luketeeninga7106 And? over a third of full time workers and over half of part time workers work weekends.. Those people were going to be working that friday/saturday/sunday regardless, holiday or no. Many places are still open on Thanksgiving as well, and very few places would be shutting down for the weekend even if it was on a saturday. Holiday weekends mostly just matter for children and cushy office workers, as even most offices just have reduced staff on weekends. Even businesses that're closed on weekends usually have people there doing maintenance and restocking and such. Most people who get holiday weekends have cushy jobs with big paychecks that happily give them 4 day weekends. That extra day is for shopping. Yes, normal people don't get that day off, but we aren't the ones with money anyway. The electronic version of this holiday is Cyber Monday, which is even worse, because it's not about normal people -_-
Can we all do the 'turn lights off for the dead sailors' thing anyway? That sounded super rad actually.
Right?
We gotta start celebrating Edmund Fitzgerald Day.
We'll make it a new holiday in Nerdfighteria like Esther Day
I agree. A holiday where we spend time thinking about people while blocking the card companies from getting their feet in the door sounds great.
We do the WWF turn the lights for one hour where i live each year. (earth hour) :D i would do it for the sailors!
A Democrat Thanksgiving and a Republican Thanksgiving sounds like something that would happen in America today and not the 20th century. Really puts into perspective how divisive politics is by nature and is not just a current trend.
Especially divisive with the American system. Having a de facto two-party system with a first-past-the-polls democratic election that's in turn controlled by a first-past-the-polls electoral college system... is insane. It's just *begging* for candidates to divide and conquer in the most deceitful ways... and so most of them do.
Yeah though gotta wonder how much of it is from a system that incentivizes a binary split.
Yeah, and yellow journalism etc. people were always divisive and horrible. I think humanity's saving graces are modern psychology, and our interconnectedness that helps us see multiple perspectives.
You'll pry my Franksgiving from my cold, dead hands!
@@imightbebiased9311 So.....next year?
Hank took a look at the census, saw how much we enjoyed explainers, and absolutely delivered 😄
does anyone have the link to this year’s service?
@@Me-vn3gz It's not out yet, as far as I know! But Hank said that it might be out soon.
2:51 I'm Indian and Hindu so all our holidays are ancient and based on the lunar calendar, which is why the date changes every year, so it's actually pretty normal for us to see a holiday whose date isnt fixed. (For example, we actually Google every year, "When is Diwali this year", and make plans aroudn whichever date it falls on). 😂
Hanukkah is the same way. It's based on the Hebrew calendar, so for us with Jewish ancestry in the Western world, using the Gregorian calendar, Google is our source of "When is Hanukkah 2023?" answers 😂
Same! My family calls it "diwaliween" whenever it falls around Halloween lol. I think it's November first next year?
I'm Catholic, and we have a church calendar that is sedimented together from the ancient Jewish calendar and later ones, I was curious if anyone else in the comments was used to the experience of, "Google when X is so you can start planning," hahha. I watching this and thinking, "Man, if he thinks fourth Thursday is confusing, he should try figuring out when which Solemnity is, and when it's celebrated on the closest Sunday instead of the weekday, and when it isn't, and when which feast day overrides another feast day when it's moved to the Sunday day," hahaha.
I ❤ Lunar calendar
America being ostensibly Christian also has Easter which wanders around March and April far more randomly than (secular) Thanksgiving. The date of the calculation of Easter involves, you guessed it, the phase of the Moon (or rather it started out that way and now it's more regularised and mathematical, and different denominations use different calculations, but it's still pretty loony. Er. Lunar.)
"at one point there was a different Thanksgiving for Democrats and Republicans" is just one of those facts that makes me think today isn't as bad as I imagined... But also that tomorrow could be way worse
So if your family was party-split, you got TWO big meals (followed by naps and a movie)?
Makes me a little jealous.
@@MonkeyJedi99 lmao this guy out here winning
Not only are you arguing about politics with your family at Thanksgiving, you can't even have Thanksgiving without arguing about politics first!
I believe evacuation day is still a state holiday in Massachusetts. My elementary school growing up used it as the day where we practiced our school shooter evacuation drills, which is a very American mix of colonial era and modern era history
Yes, Evacuation Day is a holiday, but only in Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. It is always on March 17. It commemorates the British evacuating the City of Boston and ending their siege, rather than the evacuation of the British from the whole country.
That is wild
@@terram9 It's also a way to sneak in St. Patrick's Day and/or Good Friday as a holiday without it being a religious holiday. 🙂
Not gonna lie, having a holiday called Evacuation Day and using it to practice evacuation drills is kinda funny, and also very american indeed (it's still sad to learn that having drills for school shootings are a thing over there. I'm not from the US and this is the first time I hear about them).
I know this is true, but it 200% sounds like something people would call 'too on the nose' in a sci-fi novel
I'm just chillin, drinking a beer, and feeling very thankful for the modern medicine that helped Hank overcome his "injury"... big love to all of you ❤
Because of this, my birthday is only sometimes on Thanksgiving instead of almost always on Thanksgiving and honestly, I'm thankful for that.
Mine is the 23rd so I have a thanksgiving birthday every 7th year.
Days of the week don't always land on the same days of the month though either way.
Hank, you've literally given my husband a Christmas present. EVERY SINGLE YEAR since we've been been together he asks me at least once "What day is Thanksgiving again?" This year I had a keychain made for him on Etsy with his initials on the front and "Thanksgiving is always Thursday" on the back. I'm going to put a QR code with this video in his stocking with the keychain. Thanks! 😂
I love the idea of putting such a mundane statement on a beautiful accessory. That's art.
"Fourth Thursday" makes sense to me. Simpler to understand than the rules for the new holiday Ireland introduced last year. (If the 1st of February is a Friday, then that's the holiday; otherwise, it's the first Monday in February.)
A lot of Toastmasters clubs will organise their meetings twice a month, and "First and Third Thursdays" or "Second and Fourth Tuesdays" are a common way to do it, so I'm used to thinking in those terms.
This Thanksgiving & Black Friday feels less commercial to me because we're having our first human baby, and we aren't just purchasing things for ourselves, but some big ticket items that will be conveniences as new parents which really feels like it's more for her. A deep freezer for storing milk, an apartment sized fridge for upstairs to have bottles and snacks closer. Yesterday, we played a game to reveal the baby's name. It feels less like opposing messages with this new family member to focus on. Due in February, this is not baby's first Christmas.
Hank ranting about when FDR just dropped that Thanksgiving was a week earlier than expected reminded me of working HR in the government the day Juneteenth became a recognized federal holiday. On June 17th. SO much timecard chaos.
Lol it's so funny how "The last Thursday of November" is fine for Hank but "The 4th Thursday of November" bothers him so much.
You know what's really weird? In Canada their biggest sales of the year is on Boxing Day. That's right, the day after Christmas! That always seemed strange to me all of the years that I lived there.
It’s a huge shopping day here too. Our biggest sales day of the year is still Christmas Eve in the us!
It's because people are no longer buying things for Christmas presents, so prices are cut to get rid of the last bits of stock.
It's a combination of everyone trying to clear out leftover stock and "Oh hey look, everyone just got a bunch of money for christmas, lets make sure they spend it here!"
Same in Australia. All the sales started on Boxing Day. But the last 5-10 years we’ve started seeing more Black Friday sales happening and now this year it just seems like it was always that way.
People go shopping on Boxing Day to buy themselves all of the things they wanted for Christmas, but weren't given.
After working years in retail, I can safely say...I never shop black friday. I'm tired of it.
I was guilted into covering for someone on a black Friday and it was horrible 😂 definitely would not willingly go out and buy things
I never bought anything on those days because I wanted to use what little economic influence I had to discourage businesses from being open, but thanksbutIwantmoregiving is my favorite spectator sport.
My birthday is November 25th, so it will ALWAYS land in Thanksgiving week and sometimes on Thanksgiving day. This is annoying because it's about being humble and grateful, but also I want to celebrate myself and sometimes be a little obnoxious. For reasons, I also got married in the same week, so it's a solid week of celebration.
"Putting Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday is so confusing! How will anyone ever figure out when it is!?" *Easter enters the chat*
4:01. You know why we need an awesome calendar? To know when the next Thanksgiving is!
God that’s a great transition. I can’t believe I missed that…
I almost thought the answer was going to be like a reverse Election Day situation, where Thanksgiving is the Thursday before the last Friday in November, so Black Friday can always be in November.
That is precisely where I thought it was going, and I have no idea how US elections are timed.
Haha same, surprised to learn it’s the fourth Thursday
The Nerdfighteria census was super interesting and im excited for you to send out the 2023 one while we still have some 2023 left!
Canadian Thanksgiving Day is on the second Monday of October each year and there’s No Huge Post-Thanksgiving Shopping Craze (according to The Old Farmer's Almanac). I don't do the Black Friday shopping anymore because there is a big difference between wanting and needing something. Too many wanted things get used a few times, then put away and forgotten.
The UK's daylight savings change rule (when it was followed* and before EU harmonisation) used to be the Sunday following the fourth Saturday of October and March, unless that Sunday was Easter in which case it would be the Sunday before.
Now, in common with the rest of Europe, it's always the last Sunday of those months.
* That was the *default* rule. Parliament usually set the dates each year using secondary legislation, and didn't always follow it.
Ok but...., i don't think that having it be the 4th Thursday is actually a bad rule. It seems pretty straightforward.
In my area school used to start the day after Labor Day. But they couldn't say that, that would be too easy, so instead they said it would start on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in September.
I'm from the UK and I'm a permanent resident of the US (can apply for citizenship next year). We are definitely coming back. It's only a matter of time til we re-colonise you! :D
and it's not the only "weird" holiday date in November; election day is the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, so instead of ranging from the 1st to the 7th, it ranges from the 2nd to the 8th
Yesterday my Canadian friends asked why it’s on a Thursday and I ended up researching exactly this.
In the movie Holiday Inn, in the introduction to the Thanksgiving section, a cartoon turkey jumps back and forth between two Thursdays on a November calendar. If you've wondered, this is why.
We still have an evacuation day in Boston. It just celebrates the British leaving the city after an 11 month siege. Now we mostly recognize it with… free parking?
I had always kind of vaguely assumed it was about keeping Thanksgiving Sunday from being the first Sunday of Advent.
It would be, except that on years where it’s early like this, there’s actually an extra Sunday between Thanksgiving Sunday and the First Sunday of Advent, so it ends up not mattering for that purpose if it’s the last Thursday of November or the fourth.
(This is all because Christmas Eve isn’t actually a liturgical holiday unto itself, but rather the vigil of Christmas-i.e., the evening service the day before. So when the 24th falls on a Sunday, it’s still the Fourth Sunday of Advent.)
My birthday is Nov. 28th! Sometimes it's on Thanksgiving, it's usually after, and it's never before Thanksgiving. Nice to know why.
I still remember the first time I read the Franksgiving story. Changed my life; sounds like a subplot on Parks and Rec.
I think FDR did a lot of good things (and also some other things), but I also can't help but see him getting elected four times, only leaving office in death, in the context of the global movement away from democracy in and around the 1930s. Our presidents are supposed to hold office for a while then step down.
Thankful for you, Hank!
History, probably
Good guess
I'm so excited for my pairs of Hank's Cancer Socks! I love my Awesome Socks Club socks every month. Every pair makes me smile.
Thank you for explaining this! Iv'e wondered about this for almost 50 years!
Thank you for addressing this!! I always felt like the date for Thanksgiving was especially volatile!
I live not far from Warm Springs, GA so I've been to FDR's Little White House several times. It's where he got treatment for his polio & where he died. There's a museum too about him & people close to him. It's all really neat but, of course, it only mentions the good things. So it's always crazy to me finding out something about him that's negative because I've been used to looking at him through rose-colored glasses. My first thought watching this video was "why didn't they ever mention it at the museum!" lol.
Just looking at your thumbnail got me thinking Hank - why do American calendars go Sunday - Sunday?
Sunday's part of the weekend here in Europe, our calendars generally go Monday - Monday
Sunday is part of the weekend in the US too. Sunday on one end and Saturday on the other end. The ends of the week.
Thank you for confirming I was not crazy. When I was a kid, TGD landed on Nov 30, so in recent years, I gave up knowing when it was, though I am Canadian. For us, it lands on the 2nd Monday every year.
October thanksgiving gang
Dear Hank, you sometimes seem to have so much pent up energy it just jumps out at the nearest thing, like static electricity jumping to whatever item is closest. (I'm reminded of your invective against orange juice.) The 4th Thursday is no big deal, especially considering the convoluted way of determining that other November event, Election Day. So relax! Anyway i hope your discharge of energy has calmed you down a bit. :-) (And i wish i had half the energy you have.) Tschüss
I'm not into shopping like I was when I was in my 20s... I bought less then $20 worth of food today... a loaf of bread, a pound of butter, a package of sausages, and a package of small tortillas. My budget is super skinny this season.... send help!
"because of this entirely unhinged franksgiving situation"
I remember being taught it was supposed to always be the 3rd thursday
And thus began the Nerdfighter holiday tradition of bringing back together the Garfields.
Hi Hank!
I’m 38 and I still haven’t ever shopped on Black Friday.
Our Canadian Thanksgiving being in October actually gives enough time between holidays. It seems stressful for Americans!
What about Halloween and Thanksgiving being too close by?
@@sexyscientist halloween isn't a gathering that you have to get together with all your family for a meal, like xmas and thanksgiving!
@@SierraKyliuk Okay, travelling is the issue. Got it!
@@sexyscientist nah just that much family time 😂 plus lots of stress for people
You’re right…It is!!
Boston still celebrates Evacuation Day! The public schools in the city get a day off.
I watched this video on the toilet as I was having my own evacuation day.
More reasons for not starting Christmas decorations and music until after Thanksgiving.
The confusion was well illustrated in the Movie "Holiday Inn" when the turkey jumps from one date to another. Originally, I thought the turkey was trying to avoid being dinner, but no!
I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving anymore and I have never participated in Black Friday shopping. But I am grateful for Nerdfighteria.
Good call.
Considering most Stores are Lying about Their black Friday sales, And jack Up their Prices the Month prior, So they Can discount Them,
or Those items Were already On sale And they Just changed The signs Around. (items That are On sale 30+ weeks Of the Year)
I'm celebrating black Friday by going to an eye doctor for my sudden vision loss! I'm having a good time!
Honestly this looks like a pretty good compromise
I LOVE data, so thank you for the extended census video! I could have watched you go over data for hours.
what in the anthropocene reviewed was this pivot from interesting historical knowledge to PIH (great vid good job!)
Woohoo! I love the census!!!
The fourth Thursday thing seems like a good idea to me. Simple formula.
You know what's a simpler formula? Picking a date 😁
@@KBRollerNot if you want that sweet four-day weekend every November!
@@jrpipik What four-day weekend? I had Thursday off work, but not Friday. I could have taken Friday off as a normal PTO, but then I could do that any time without a holiday, too 😁
try being brazilian (especially from rio, bahia or pernambuco) and trying to keep up with carnival because it needs to be 40 days before easter and somehow it fluctuates wildly
One our more important holidays in Melbourne(Australia) is on the 1st Tuesday of November. It celebrates a horse race.
A non-fixed holiday isn't too weird in the UK either! Easter Sunday is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox (sometimes called the Paschal full moon) and YES THAT IS THE REAL WAY WE DECIDE THE DATE!!! Shrove Tuesday always happens 47 days before that too. Not to mention, fathers day is the third Sunday of June, and Mothers day is the second sunday of may.
You forgot to mention that it's the calculated liturgical full moon, not the observed one. Look up "computus".
I've always wondered why some holidays are on a specific date like December 25th or February 14th but then other holidays are the blank day of the month so like the last Thursday of November or the first Sunday of April. Doesn't matter what the number is.
Great video.
Most of my life was consumed by working as a nurse...there are no real holidays outside the days off,then acknowledged sleepily in swratpants and apologies to the kid. Thanks for explaining what I missed
No lights are coming on in my room from 6-7pm today
I would like to petition to move Thanksgiving to some time in the fourth week of October. That is 8 weeks after most universities begin their 16-week semesters. Everyone is selling Christmas stuff at that time anyway.
I hope you realize that no matter which Thursday it's on -- as long as it's always on a Thursday (this would be true of any other day of the week) it's always going to vary by up to 6 days. The "anywhere from the X to the Y" problem is inherent in the calendar. We can either keep the day of the week the same and vary the date, or we can keep the date the same (like Christmas or Independence Day) and vary the day of the week. Not both.
every time you guys recommend your products, i cry in eastern europe and currency conversion rates. but please keep up the good work! the stuff you make is extremely lovely and it deserves to be popular
We put up Christmas Decorations on Black Friday, and listen to a ton of Nat King Cole and Company. Our family avoids Black Friday shopping like the plague. It's more the official start of the Christmas season.
Lots of holidays are Xth weekday of Y month specifically to control what weekdays they do or do not fall on. Off the top of my head, there's labor day, memorial day, mother's day, father's, and while not a holiday, Election day is always on a Tuesday so that it's never on a Sunday or Saturday.
I learned we are the same age! That's kinda fun since you're as Celebrity as RUclips gets, and way cooler than normal celebs since you know things!
May we both last at least another 43 years!
The Melbourne Cup is the first Tuesday of November.
I think.
it seems totally normal to me to have holidays that move around the gregorian calendar, but i’m jewish. (easter also moves around, and sometimes the eastern and western easters diverge, so it’s not just us.)
Half of the US federal holidays move around the month like Thanksgiving. 5 are always on Monday, 6 have a date, and one is Thanksgiving.
@@JamieElli ah, the uniform monday holiday act...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Monday_Holiday_Act
The first time I heard of Black Friday sales this year was before Halloween. The date "Black Friday" no longer has any meaning.
I'm forever geeking out at your Garfield collection, omggggg.
I'm from Boston and we celebrate evacuation day ... but in March. Its a different British retreat, this one from Boston in 1776.
i was really worried i had forgotten about an important light ritual
This was a delightful history lesson. I did not know any of this! I've never personally had a hard time with the fourth Thursday rule, and compared to holidays that follow a lunar calendar the variance isn't _that_ wild, but given your feelings about the number of days in months, this totally tracks for you.
I'm glad to not be the only one who felt like Thanksgiving was kinda early this year.
Typically, when there are only four Thursday in November, Advent begins three days after Thanksgiving (on Sunday). Every few years there is an extra week before Advent begins, the years there are five Thursdays in November. This year the fourth Sunday in Advent falls on Christmas Eve. Last year the fourth Sunday was a full week before Christmas.
The one nice thing about the 2nd last Thursday that the old set-up could never allow: once in a glorious while we geeks get a double holiday. Doctor Who Day Thanksgiving.
I appreciate the explainer video! Very interesting!
Hank is the history one now!!
Hank! The link to the census is linking specifically to 21:41 in the video, in case that's unintentional
Thankful for Hank and John and Nerdfighteria 🫶
Boston,Massachusetts celebrates Evacuation Day on the day after St Patricks day.
Extra day off for hangovers
I find if I ask people when Thanksgiving happens, almost everyone says it's the THIRD Thursday in November. It's an odd phenomenon
Tbh... I thought that as well. Even though we just had it on the fourth literally yesterday, my brain didn't make the connection. Brains are fragile, weird, squishy things.
Evacuation Day is still observed in Boston, schools and city government are closed.
Fun fact: There are 52 Black Fridays a year at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. No shopping involved, sadly. It's the first Friday of training for any new platoon that starts up. And it usually involves Drill Instructors screaming at recruits, throwing things around, having the recruits run back and forth the retrieve items, and a lot of chaos. I went through one of those Black Fridays 22 years ago.
Damn it Hank. You are the only person I've ever encountered that I feel I'd enjoy arguing with. I hope to one day have someone like you in my life
No.... no it's... oh ok. You said it's not that. I was like "oh Hank, no. It's not about lighthouses..." Phew.
We have a holiday here, Auckland Anniversary Day, which is on the Monday closest to January 29th (when William Hobson didn't proclaim the creation of the new colony, which was actually the following day). This means that it is entirely possible for the holiday to fall in February, which it did in 2021. This is extremely confusing.
Hank I think you meant the last Thursday of November instead of the last day of November when talking about Lincoln and reconstruction. Maybe not. Maybe I was confused which is highly plausible.
I didn't know that this was an issue for people, I had always been taught that Thanksgiving was the fourth Thursday and not the last one. It's Easter (and as a result Mardi Gras) that always gives me trouble 🥴🥴🥴
Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. Not confusing at all! *shakes fist at the Council of Nicea
Thank goodness there’s a concrete answer to this. Still weird, but concrete, and I am satisfied.
i had to google to make sure you weren't tricking us again
While I knew the whole story it’s always nice to hear… Hank(?) explain.
As a Canadian, I was so confused by the Magic Tree House book "Thanksgiving on Thursday" growing up. Like, why would Thanksgiving be on a Thursday?
I thought this video was going to explain why American Thanksgiving is, inexplicably, on a Thursday, rather than a Friday or Monday which would make it a long weekend.
I guess you maybe did implicitly explain why. Because Thanksgiving took over for evacuation day, which was based on a specific event presumably that *did* take place on a Thursday? Is that right?
It's extremely common in the US for Thanksgiving to be the first day of an even longer weekend. That's why so many people are free to shop on Black Friday.
@@ZipplyZane So I've heard. But then there are all the employees who have to work those Black Fridays.
@@luketeeninga7106 Which is inherent in it being a day for shopping.
The reason for all the deals was originally to get people out to shop on a day would they otherwise wouldn't. But doing that inherently means that you have to have people working.
So commercialism is also a big reason why Thanksgiving is not a four day weekend for many.
@@luketeeninga7106 And? over a third of full time workers and over half of part time workers work weekends.. Those people were going to be working that friday/saturday/sunday regardless, holiday or no. Many places are still open on Thanksgiving as well, and very few places would be shutting down for the weekend even if it was on a saturday. Holiday weekends mostly just matter for children and cushy office workers, as even most offices just have reduced staff on weekends. Even businesses that're closed on weekends usually have people there doing maintenance and restocking and such.
Most people who get holiday weekends have cushy jobs with big paychecks that happily give them 4 day weekends. That extra day is for shopping. Yes, normal people don't get that day off, but we aren't the ones with money anyway. The electronic version of this holiday is Cyber Monday, which is even worse, because it's not about normal people -_-