This Thanksgiving, may we all celebrate the many blessings of our great nation as families, friends and loved ones come together in gratitude.
Thanksgiving is at the heart of the American spirit of gratitude – finding light in times of joy and strife. The Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving to recognize a successful harvest made possible by the generosity and kindness of the Wampanoag people. On the way to Valley Forge, as General George Washington and his troops continued the bitter fight for our nation’s independence, they found a moment for Thanksgiving. And in the midst of the fight to preserve our Union during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday and found gratitude in the courage of the American people who sacrificed so much for our country.
We are a good nation because we are a good people. The First Lady and I remain inspired by the everyday Americans who lift up and move this country forward. Today, so many are with family and friends, celebrating the love that binds them together and creating new traditions that will last for generations. To everyone who has an empty seat at the dinner table and is grieving the loss of a loved one, the First Lady and I hold you in our hearts and prayers.
America is a nation full of promise and opportunity—and that’s because ordinary Americans do extraordinary things every day. Our service members and veterans have given everything, risked everything, and dared everything to keep our nation free. Our first responders, firefighters and police officers risk their lives every day to protect the rest of us. I can see the best of America in them and in our workers and union leaders, civil servants and teachers, doctors and scientists and everyone who puts their hearts and souls into ensuring that people are treated with dignity and respect. And I find hope in our nation’s families who sacrifice so much to achieve the American dream and build a future worthy of our highest aspirations.
This Thanksgiving – the last one I will declare as President – ​​I express my gratitude to the American people. It has been the honor of my life to be President. America is the greatest country on earth and there is so much to be grateful for. May we celebrate everything that unites us – because nothing exceeds our capacities when we do it together.
THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 28, 2024, as a national day of Thanksgiving. I encourage the people of the United States of America to come together and thank the friends, neighbors, family and communities who have supported each other in a show of goodwill and unity over the past year.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereby laid down my hand on the twenty-seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-four, and in the year of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.