Let’s change Thanksgiving to mid-October

As school starts again, it occurs to me that the next vacation will not be for three more months, for Thanksgiving. School will be off for a week. Millions of Americans will travel in late-autumn weather, in many cases braving snow, or in central California, fog, to be with loved ones. My question is, why?

Americans should take a page from the Canadian playbook. Their Thanksgiving is the second Monday of October. If we did the same, traveling to be with our families would be much easier, weather-wise. We could make the day after a holiday as well, to allow time to travel back home and preserving the four-day weekend.

Schools would probably follow suit, and give students that week off instead. This would evenly split the fall semester into two quarters with a week off in between. That makes more sense than going three months until having a break, then only three more weeks until another one.

I believe that a mid-October break would be beneficial for the local economy and for school attendance figures. Imagine all the kids in Fresno being off school during the Big Fresno Fair!

This story was originally published September 4, 2016 at 1:02 PM with the headline "Let’s change Thanksgiving to mid-October."