When did this become a thing?
I’m a novice at American Thanksgiving: no big meal on Sunday?
I use the word “dinner” for the main meal of the day regardless of whether it is at mid-day or in the evening. If the midday meal is light I call it lunch. If the evening meal is the lighter meal I call it supper. That was just the nomenclature I was raised with.
American Thanksgiving is always on Thursday not Sunday
As for timing, big meal is usually sometime between noon and 7pm.
As MA said, American Thanksgiving is the 4th Thursday of November. With the various ways in which it is celebrated I wouldn’t be surprised if some families celebrate the following Sunday.
My wife’s family is fairly large (I believe she has 20 aunts and uncles, although not all still alive) and most still live in (or near) the town her parents grew up in. Thanksgiving became THE holiday bc that is when those that did leave frequently returned. Regardless, to accommodate the size and activities of many people’s extended families Wednesday was family dinner for her Father’s side, Thursday was for her mother’s side (60+ people some years), and Friday was a friends and family activity on her mother’s side, primarily out of tradition.
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Always thought the Thursday was the NFL watching day in the US. Thanks for clarifying that it, rather than Sunday, is also the feasting day.
Both Thursday and Sunday of that week have games, and yes many do honor the tradition of watching a game on Thursday with a belly full of turkey
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https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/4802988/qatar-world-cup-2022-sportswashingsecurity-and-soccer
The final word on that shit-stain Qatar. I’m thinking of recording on Telemundo, so I don’t hear anything in English about how great Qatar is, by Americans obviously paid to say such things. (Yes, I don’t put it past Qataris to offer, nor for Americans (see LIV Golf) to accept.) If they’ve paid off the Mexicans, I’ll never know. However, Telemundo’s score bug is quite confusing. If everyone, in every sport, could just look at NBC/USA’s score bug and copy it, I would appreciate it.
Thanks for all the education on US Thanksgiving.
Less than a week until Group B play starts: should be an interesting group. England-Iran game is at 5 am local time so will only watch the later US-Wales game in real time. 
Canada’s group has two semi-finalists from the 2018 WC in it so I am resigned to them going home early. Can’t be worse though than their one previous WC appearance in 1986 where they failed to score a goal. 
Um, did you think that the whole country takes off Thanksgiving Thursday because of NFL Football? Then, the next day, decides to start Christmas shopping?
A little history lesson:
Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, with a proclamation by President George Washington after a request by Congress.[9] President Thomas Jefferson chose not to observe the holiday, and its celebration was intermittent until President Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens”, calling on the American people to also, “with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience .. fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation…”. Lincoln declared it for the last Thursday in November.[10][11] On June 28, 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the Holidays Act that made Thanksgiving a yearly appointed federal holiday in Washington D.C.[12][13][14] On January 6, 1885, an act by Congress made Thanksgiving, and other federal holidays, a paid holiday for all federal workers throughout the United States.[15] Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the date was moved to one week earlier, observed between 1939 and 1941 amid significant controversy. From 1942 onwards, Thanksgiving, by an act of Congress, signed into law by FDR, received a permanent observation date, the fourth Thursday in November, no longer at the discretion of the President.[16][17]
Thanksgiving Day football games in the United States are nearly as old as the game—and the organized holiday—themselves. The first Thanksgiving Day football game took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Thanksgiving Day of 1869, less than two weeks after Rutgers defeated Princeton in New Brunswick, New Jersey in what is widely recognized as the first intercollegiate football game in the United States, and only six years after Abraham Lincoln declared the first fixed national Thanksgiving holiday in 1863. On November 17, 1869, the Evening Telegraph newspaper of Philadelphia published the following announcement: “Foot Ball: A foot-ball match between twenty-two players of the Young America Cricket Club and the Germantown Cricket Club will take place on Thanksgiving Day at 12 1/2 o’clock, on the grounds of the Germantown Club.”[1] The proximity of Philadelphia to both Rutgers and Princeton invites speculation that this game may have been played under similar rules and perhaps involved some of the same participants, or at least people familiar with the game played at Rutgers, and a second match at Princeton, earlier that month.
Also, in the USA, families and/or friends will play football (touch or flag) in the park, before the games start on the TV.
I expect the origins of the holiday are largely ignored and have been replaced by NFL watching and shopping!
In any event, my SC in-laws are having their family Thanksgiving feast on the Sunday so I guess they are out of tune with American tradition.
No, you just got a B-list invite! 
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SC = South Carolina?
Then you probably need to know that college football rivalry games are starting Thursday night, all day Friday, and all day Saturday. Including South Carolina/Clemson Saturday at noon EST.
I’d say Thanksgiving itself is the US holiday least corrupted by commercialism. It’s mostly about food, family, and friends.
Of course retailers couldn’t miss out altogether and created Black Friday. I have never gone to battle the crowds for Black Friday sales, and never will.
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Yup, SC=South Carolina. In Columbia, to be exact.
My nephew and niece are both USC graduates so I will be cheering for the Gamecocks even though they will probably get crushed by Clemson.
You can probably take a flutter on Canada scoring at least one goal?
USC is the University of Southern California.
The gamecocks are just SC.
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Called it “American Columbia” a few times. See if you can make that happen.
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I know the west coast USC well but there is no trademark on the initials USC. My nephew and niece who went to South Carolina sometimes use the “USC” shorthand for their school so that is good enough for me.
This reminds me of my Michigan cousin. She told me her son had started MIT and I was greatly impressed as that branch of our family had not previously had anyone go beyond high school. However I found out afterwards it was the Michigan Institute of Technology her son was attending, somewhat less impressive than its Massachusetts counterpart! No monopoly on the MIT acronym either.
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They’re wrong 
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