Thanksgiving: What's the history of the holiday and why does the United States celebrate 'turkey day'? 

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When is Thanksgiving Day 2016?

Today. Thursday, Nov 24, (the fourth Thursday in November) – the day before Black Friday.
Thanksgiving Day traditionally kicks off the 'holiday season' in the United States. The day was set in stone by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 and approved by Congress in 1941. FDR changed it from Abraham Lincoln's designation as the last Thursday in November (because there are sometimes five Thursdays in the month).

 While Britons think of it as a warm-up for the Yuletide period, many Americans think it of it as
just as important as Christmas.

 In fact, more people in the US celebrate Thanksgiving than they do Christmas. Thanksgiving Day is a secular holiday in a country that officially separates church and state so this probably makes sense.

Who set the date of Thanksgiving Day?

'The National Thanksgiving Proclamation' was the first formal proclamation of Thanksgiving in America. George Washington, the first president of the United States,  made this proclamation on Oct 3, 1789.
Then in 1846, author Sarah Josepha Hale waged a one-woman campaign for Thanksgiving to be
 recognised as a truly national holiday.
In the US the day had previously been celebrated only in New England and was largely unknown in the American South. All the other states scheduled their own Thanksgiving holidays at different times,
 some as early as October and others as late as January.

 George Washington, first president of the United States, made the first Thanksgiving 

proclamation on Oct 3, 1789

Hale's advocacy for the national holiday lasted 17 years and four presidencies before the letter she
 wrote to Lincoln was successful. In 1863 at the height of the Civil War he supported legislation which established a national holiday of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November.
Lincoln perhaps wanted the date to tie in with the anchoring of the Mayflower at Cape Cod, which
occurred on Nov 21, 1620. Although we now use the Gregorian calendar. In 1621 the date would have been Nov 11 to the Pilgrims who used the Julian calendar.
So Hale finally got her wish. She is perhaps now better known, though, for writing the nursery rhyme
 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'.

Football!

Like soccer on Boxing Day in the UK, football (the American version) plays a major role in
Thanksgiving.The University of Detroit Stadium hosted the first Thanksgiving Day football game
in 1934, pitting
the Detroit Lions against the Chicago Bears.
The game was the brainchild of G.A. Richards, the first owner of the Detroit Lions. He was keen
to promote the new franchise in a baseball-mad city, so he approached NBC to get them to broadcast
the game across their national radio network. They agreed and the game became the first ever network broadcast event.
The game was such a hit it became a tradition in the US and football is now an integral part of the day.
Detroit has had played a game every year since, breaking only for World War Two. The Dallas
Cowboys, too, have played every year on Thanksgiving since 1966, only missing two years in
1975 and 1977.

 84th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2010 in New York City.

Annual Macy's parade

Another Thanksgiving tradition is the Macy's parade in New York City – an annual pageant
of floats, cheerleaders, marching bands and gigantic balloons.
The parade dates back to the 1920s when many of the immigrant workers at Macy's department
store were keen to celebrate the American holiday with the sort of festival their parents had thrown in Europe.
It originally started from 145th Street in Harlem and ended at Herald Square, making
a 6-mile (9.7 km) route.
The newest route was introduced with the 2012 parade. This change eliminated Times Square and
rerouted the parade down Sixth Avenue, a move that was protested by the Times Square BID,
 Broadway theatre owners and other groups.
New York City officials preview the parade route and try to move as many potential obstacles
out of the way, including traffic signals.

 A large balloon depicting Captain Nemo makes its way down the street during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day 
Parade in New York in 1929. Originally known as the Macy's Christmas Parade, the Thanksgiving Day parade
 started in 1924.

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