History of the White House Thank you The traditions date back more than 160 years to President Abraham Lincoln, who established the national holiday.
During his time in office, Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for the celebration of Thanksgiving, overcoming similar efforts by presidents who came before him. National Park Service,
The official name of the annual national holiday is named in part for author Sarah Josepha Hale. The NPS notes that in 1827 – as editor of the “Boston Ladies' Magazine” – Hale began writing essays for national holidays. Ultimately, on September 18, 1863, he wrote to Lincoln asking him to use his presidential powers to enact the holiday.
Lincoln obliged and a few weeks later, on October 3, 1863 – during the height of the Civil War – he issued the Thanksgiving Proclamation. Since then, the country has been celebrating Thanksgiving Day.
But this did not happen until a bill passed by Congress on December 26, 1941, created an annual holiday on the fourth Thursday in November.
Thanksgiving at the White House is usually relatively quiet and includes the tradition of forgiving lucky turkeys their ruined fortunes at the dinner table.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
presidential pardon turkey
The first ever turkey pardon is believed to have been issued by Lincoln, as recorded by White House reporter Noah Brooks in an 1865 dispatch. White House Historical Association,
Lincoln granted clemency to his son Tad Lincoln's turkey, named Jack, which was originally to be eaten at the family's Christmas dinner in 1863.
Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
But the WHHA says the annual tradition in which the White House sends a pardon presentation turkey to a farm to spend its days did not occur until Ronald Reagan became president in the 1980s. Decades ago, presidents would sometimes obtain turkeys from the poultry industry and decide not to eat them without an official apology.
WHHA says the practice of sending a presentation turkey to the President became a norm in 1981, and the pardon ceremony quickly became a national sensation. By 1989, the annual tradition was embodied with President George H.W. Bush – as documented by the association – speaking to the pardoned turkey, with his successors still repeating this line at ceremonies today: “They should have just been President. Pardon has been granted by.”
George Bush Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
On Monday, President Biden Last two turkeys issued amnesties of his tenure, to peaches and flowersThat sent him to spend the rest of his life at FarmAmerica in Minnesota as a poultry ambassador for agriculture students.
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gathering with family and friends
Apart from the spectacle of a turkey pardon, the President celebrates Thanksgiving Day just like families across the country.
First documents According to the WHHA, the Thanksgiving gathering at the White House took place on November 28, 1878. The then President Rutherford B. Hayes held a large Thanksgiving dinner gathering with his family and private secretaries, then sang hymns in the Red Room and invited African-American staff to enjoy their own Thanksgiving meal in the State Dining Room.
Since then this tradition has stood the test of time. Through times of economic hardship and war, presidents have made time for family. The WHHA says President Woodrow Wilson's first Thanksgiving meal, on November 29, 1917, during World War I, was economical — and without cranberries.
In recent decades, presidents have adopted a tradition of vacationing at their so-called “go-to” vacation spots outside the White House. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan visited the family farm in Santa Barbara, California.
President-elect Donald Trump spent a Thanksgiving celebration of his first term at his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida. President Biden has spent every Thanksgiving during his tenure with family in Nantucket, Massachusetts as the Biden family over 40 years,