Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November. It is always a Thursday between November 22 and November 28, so the date changes every year.
Year
Date
Days away
2026
32 days
2027
396 days
2028
760 days
2029
1,124 days
2030
1,495 days
When is Thanksgiving? The fourth Thursday rule
Federal law puts Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November, so it can land on any date from November 22 to November 28. The weekday of November 1 decides which one:
November 1 falls on
Thanksgiving date
Thursday
November 22
Wednesday
November 23
Tuesday
November 24
Monday
November 25
Sunday
November 26
Saturday
November 27
Friday
November 28
Year to year, the date slides one day earlier, or two after a February 29. Once it would drop below November 22, it jumps ahead a week: Thanksgiving is November 22 in 2029 and November 28 in 2030.
Business days before Thanksgiving
Counted from early November, the business days before Thanksgiving lose Veterans Day as well as weekends. November 11 is a federal holiday, observed on Friday, November 10, when it falls on a Saturday, and on Monday, November 12, when it falls on a Sunday. From Monday, November 2, 2026, that leaves 16 business days, ending on Wednesday, November 25.
The Friday after Thanksgiving is a regular business day, because federal law gives only the Thursday off. Your employer decides if it is a day off, and the Black Friday countdown runs to that Friday.
Why Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November
From Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation onward, presidents usually named the last Thursday of November. In 1939 that was November 30, and Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday a week earlier. Some states kept the old date, so for two years the country had two Thanksgivings.
The House voted on October 6, 1941, for the last Thursday. The Senate rewrote it as the fourth Thursday, which differs in years when November has five Thursdays, and the House agreed. Roosevelt signed the joint resolution on December 26, 1941, and the rule now sits in 5 U.S.C. 6103.