The winter holiday season in the United States comprises various national holidays, one of which is Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. It was inaugurated in 1789 with an edict by George Washington, originally as a harvest festival. However, it was celebrated intermittently then as many officials –including Thomas Jefferson– repudiated to partake in it, until the dawn of Abraham Lincoln, who has declared Thanksgiving as a national holiday to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November in 1863. The celebration day of Thanksgiving was changed under the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt to the fourth Thursday of November – a date which is perennial to this day.