Have you always thought that November 24th is always on a Thursday? Are there any other dates that you think always fall on a certain day of the week? ::glances nervously at the exit::
When I was growing up, we went to school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. My kids’ district always has Wednesday off. We haven’t moved to taking the whole week off yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that happened eventually.
When I’ve had jobs that did NOT give you the Friday after Thanksgiving off, I never took it off. It was the easiest day of the year - no customers, no clients, no co-workers; it would be a shame to waste a vacation day!
I still don’t understand why the selected Thursday in the first place, though.
The answer to the OP is “Today”.
d&r
When I was professing in the US, Thanksgiving week was always a problem. Wednesday classes were pretty much a loss as students headed home. But Monday and Tuesday were always well attended. Now I gather that much of the week is a dead loss. I think that since most colleges now have a spring break, maybe they’ve now adjusted to a fall break.
See today’s archive column for more on the history of the holiday. In Canada, Thanksgiving always comes on a Monday, exactly 45 days before the US holiday. It is an official holiday and people usually do eat turkey but is really no big deal.
Since my wife and I are home alone this year (we usually visit my son for a turkey blast but their house is undergoing renovation) my wife bought a couple of turkey breasts and a couple of drumsticks. Last night we had potato latkes.
Missed the edit window.
According to early Christian observances, Wednesday and Friday were days for fasting.
Therefore, Abraham Lincoln following the lead of George Washington, chose Thursday for a national day of Thanksgiving. Because it would be difficult to have a feast on a day of fasting.
I’ve never celebrated the holidays, at least not since most of my close relatives died. But even before that, Thanksgiving and Christmas was a few hours on each day tops. Then it was off to wander the streets in silence or just zone out at home. I would happily work on holidays like Christmas and New Years, especially when I used to do hourly work. Double-time baby, uh-huh, uh-huh!!!
Being somewhat oblivious re: calendars and time in general, I once almost booked air travel to visit family on the fifth Thursday of November. I marveled at how low the airfare was. Fortunately I looked at a calendar that had holidays marked before I purchased the tickets.
So true so true.
When I worked for a department store we use to joke about this. You had to work the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas, the only excuse accepted was if you dies. And they expected you to bring in your death certificate, and as long as you were there you may as well work.
When is Thanksgiving?
3:30. Come on down! 
Somehow, early in my life, I got turkey so tightly associated with Thanksgiving, that it seemed odd to me to eat turkey at any other time. Only after I was well into my 30’s did this change.
I lived and worked in Silicon Gulch, where there were some cafeteria-style restaurants called Harry’s Hofbrau. I ate there regularly. They had various menus that rotated from day to day, but whatever else they had, there was ALWAYS turkey. Ask for turkey, and they’d carve off a few slices right there before your eyes, flop them onto a plate with your choice or light brown or dark brown gravy over it and the mashed potatoes.
Some days, they also had beef ribs simmering in barbecue sauce. Sometimes I got that. Or, sometimes I got the turkey, and I asked them to put the barbecue sauce over the turkey and potatoes. They ALWAYS looked at me real funny when I asked that. It’s such a conformist society we live in, I guess. But then they did like I asked. Really good.
We could make it a 10-day weekend when I was in school. The teachers always voted for the Monday after Thanksgiving as one of the two paid days off they got to schedule. I think it was how they got paid for having to do parent-teacher conferences after school.
They always explained that they wanted to make it the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, but the school board would never agree to add another break day and a one-day week would be completely pointless (as opposed to the two-day week which was only mostly pointless).
Friday the 13th always falls on a Friday. (Except in Pogo comic strips.)
That reminds me of Bernard Trink, a long-time American columnist in Bangkok who liked to include little bits of trivia. Once he wrote that every month that starts on a Sunday has a Friday the 13th. Gosh!