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Thanksgiving-- the day after & five months before

By Chuck Kallendorf

Today we?re thinking the day after Thanksgiving should be a little more than a shopping day?and have even found something to maybe think about.

We?re taught in grade school that Thanksgiving was a celebration between Virginia settlers and American Indians after a particularly difficult winter and all. Actually, the first Thanksgiving wasn?t until 1619, and it was part of the charter of what eventually would become known as ?Berkley Plantation.? (See Here)

To further be picky, while George Washington in 1789 proclaimed October 3rd the first day of thanksgiving in the country, Lincoln and successive presidents up until 1939 were proclaiming it to be the ?last Thursday in November.?
This is interesting, too, because Wikipedia says that ?? in 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt declared Thanksgiving would be the second-to-last Thursday of November rather than the last. With the country still in the midst of The Great Depression, Roosevelt thought this would give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas.? In any event, the first time making the date of Thanksgiving a mater of federal law didn?t come about until November 26, 1941.

What brought our attention to this whole thing was this article on MSNBC this morning. We thought we?d follow up on it. So ?.

A Washington Post article back on May 9th began, ?Nearly 400 years to the day that English settlers first landed in Virginia, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would grant federal recognition & status as sovereign nations to six Indian tribes from the state.?

Enter House Bill 1294, introduced in the House on March 1, 2007, passed May 8, 2007, being sent and read twice in the Senate, then referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs.

A resolution ?commemorating the 400th. Anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown? was introduced by Rep. JoAnn Davis, of Virginia, on April 18th. It was referred to the Senate and Committee on the Judiciary on May 9th. as well.

Anyway... Have a good weekend & shop well

Full post as published by Cincinnati Law Library Blog on November 23, 2007 (boomark / email).