Authored by Timothy C. Hemmis via RealClearHistory,

In the United States, November 11th has been known as Veterans Day since 1954 (before that, it was known as Armistice Day). Originally, Veterans Day commemorated the Allies’ victory in World War I. However, after the Second World War, veterans of that conflict including Dwight Eisenhower pushed to expand the holiday to honor all veterans. In many ways, this holiday is about giving thanks to those who have served in wars to protect the United States of America. In that sense it is as much a day of thanksgiving, if not more so, than the one at the end of the November.

The Thanksgiving we all know and love, which we celebrate with turkey, mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing/stuffing, cranberry sauce, and a multitude of pies, began as a solemn day of prayer and remembrance. Churches and political bodies often declared a day of thanksgiving after major events. These “holidays” could take place any time of the year. So why November?

President George Washington issued the first national day of thanksgiving on November 26th, 1789 as a day for prayer and giving thanks to God “for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation.” But Washington’s declaration was not the start of an annual holiday.

President Abraham Lincoln, from the prompting of writer Sarah Josepha Hale, officially set a national holiday on the final Thursday of November in 1863. Established during the Civil War, the new holiday encouraged Americans to remember and give thanks for blessings and military successes of the United States of America. Lincoln and Hale both thought a holiday could help heal the divided nation.

By the 20th century, Thanksgiving morphed into the feast we know today. The modern holiday is loosely based on the “First Thanksgiving” that the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony had in 1621, which was a harvest feast and a solemn day.

The rise of American consumerism during the late 19th century led to the growth of holiday meals and celebrations. During Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, the holiday was moved to the third Thursday of November, which allowed for a few extra days of Christmas shopping to help boost an economy that had been limping along during the Great Depression. One could say that the holiday creep started with FDR.

As both Veterans Day and Thanksgiving are sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas, these November holidays have unfortunately been relegated to a secondary status.

Despite the origins of both these days of thanksgiving, we often forget the history and get swept up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. There is nothing wrong with putting up your Christmas tree early, but hopefully you and your family can pause and celebrate the two days of thanksgiving this November.

Timothy C. Hemmis is Associate Professor of History with a specialization in Early American History at Texas A&M University – Central Texas in Killeen, Texas. His research focuses on empire, national identity, war and society in Revolutionary America (1750-1815). He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2015. He is a fellow with the Jack Miller Center.

President-elect Donald Trump plans to make Elon Musk “secretary of cost-cutting” to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in slashing $2 trillion from the federal budget—about a third of what the bloated federal government spent in the latest fiscal year. This once-in-a-generation initiative will cut thousands of federal workers and reduce or even eliminate the vast cancerous bureaucracy with a new small government led by capable leaders.

Musk wrote in an X post on Sunday night that this shock-and-awe approach will have “obstacles overcoming the Kafkaesque nature of the rules governing this vast bureaucracy and ensuring that maniacally dedicated small-government revolutionaries join this administration. ” 

Musk was responding to Vivek Ramaswamy’s X post, “We won & now have a once-in-a-century opportunity to radically downsize the size, scope, and mission of the federal government. And the top obstacle to our success won’t even be the Democrats.” 

Indeed, the obstacles are overcoming the Kafkaesque nature of the rules governing this vast bureaucracy and ensuring that maniacally dedicated small-government revolutionaries join this administration! https://t.co/ObfnIeuTXa

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 11, 2024

Trump is less than three months away from implementing his plan to ‘Make America Great Again’… and thousands of federal workers across DC, Northern Virginia, and Baltimore region have been put on notice for potential job loss.

A recent report by the Washington Post showed that approximately 15% of the 2.19 million civilian full-time federal employees in the US (data from 2023), or about 328,500, live in Northern Virginia, suburban Maryland, and even a touch of West Virginia. 

The other 85% work elsewhere around the country. 

More recent figures show that figure is as high as 373,000 in the Virginia, DC, and Maryland region. These job cuts could spark economic turmoil and reshape the DC landscape—or the beginnings of draining the swamp.