Throughout your life, you have undoubtedly encountered a multitude of pairings; some things just go well together. Of course, not all duos are created equally; while some are a result of simple convenience or tradition, other, more elite pairings easily stand out. Peanut butter and jelly, Sundays and football, hot dogs and baseball — these pairings are iconic because they just feel right. Why do certain combinations make so much sense? While that specific answer is far above my pay grade, I can provide you with this absolute power couple of a pairing — Thanksgiving and its day of the week, Thursday.
Thanksgiving has been a Thursday-only holiday since 1942, but the connection goes back further. It had always been celebrated in late November, as the first Thanksgiving — a harvest feast between Pilgrims and Native Americans — occurred around that time. Both Washington and Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November a national day of Thanksgiving, and Franklin D. Roosevelt made it official when he created the national holiday and solidified it as the fourth Thursday of November. Those who don’t see the pairing as particularly iconic (they’re wrong) might view the holiday’s history as the only reason for the connection, but I’m not one of those people!
Thanksgiving on Thursday makes sense, and on a subliminal level, not just because it’s always been that way. Beyond the obvious alliteration, Thanksgiving really feels like a Thursday; if the holiday were on a Wednesday, and had been since its inception, I couldn’t imagine myself viewing it the same way. Of course, there has to be a reason I feel this, I would like to think of myself as a (somewhat) logical person! It’s not easy to articulate what makes some combinations feel so natural, but for Thanksgiving, I assume it is due — at least in part — to the following factors.
Being a family holiday, Thanksgiving is about people coming together. Because it’s a federal holiday, as well as a Thursday (thanks FDR!), most people can take a break from work and spend quality time with their families. Naturally, Black Friday only makes sense with Thanksgiving on Thursday — and the same for Cyber Monday — the whole week around Thanksgiving is framed by it being on Thursday. While I did just say “beyond the alliteration,” that most definitely plays a role. Turkey, togetherness, Thanksgiving and Thursday — they all have something in common. I mean, to be honest, “Thanksgiving-Thursday” rolls off the tongue a whole lot better than “We-appreciate-what-we-have-Wednesday.”
Given the legendary synergy between Thanksgiving and its day of the week, you might expect to see other holidays clamoring to replicate this success, but alas, day-of-the-week-based holidays are few and far between. Of the candidates, though, one stands out to me as the clear choice to make the switch — Halloween.
This year, Halloween fell on a Friday, and it just felt right. After I realized that’s when it’d be, I was not only relieved I wouldn’t have school the next day — I also realized something. Halloween is a perfect fit for a day-of-the-week-based holiday. Like Thanksgiving, but unlike Christmas and the Fourth of July, it lacks an intrinsic link to a single date; its traditional association with the 31st of October has been thoroughly diluted over time, to the point of irrelevance. I am unaware of any “All Hallows’ Eve” fans who would protest Halloween being shifted from the original date, but I can know of many who would find it beneficial.
I recall how infuriated I was as a child when Halloween was short because it fell on a school night. In some districts, the next day is canceled to accommodate the holiday, complicating an already hectic fall schedule. To many adults, Halloween is a party, and obviously, no one’s in the mood for work after a holiday rager. Both of these groups would gain from a permanent Friday Halloween, as without the holiday’s main drawback — the day after — they would be free to celebrate to their hearts’ content.
If Halloween and Friday are united, they will no doubt join Thanksgiving and Thursday in the legendary pairing hall of fame, and we will look back and wonder why the change wasn’t made sooner.
