It can be confusing when you want to capitalize a word and you don’t know if you should do it. But, there are simple rules to follow if you want to know whether a word should be capitalized or not.
This happens also when we talk about languages, days of the week, months, countries, and yes, even holidays are capitalized in English!
Is Thanksgiving Capitalized? What About “Thanksgiving Day”?
Yes, both the word “Thanksgiving” and “Day” are capitalized since it is a proper noun when referring to the holiday “Thanksgiving Day”. This is true in all countries that celebrate a Thanksgiving Day.
To help you visualize this answer you should always remember that holidays, both secular and religious are capitalized. It doesn’t matter if they’re not at the beginning of a sentence.
This happens because they’re proper names that describe a specific day and you should capitalize the first letter. These holidays are unique days and thus the importance of capitalizing them.
So days like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas and Thanksgiving will always be capitalized. Here are some examples to help illustrate:
- “Our neighbors don’t like it when their son Jacob doesn’t spend Thanksgiving Day with them.”
- “My dog loves the smell of the Thanksgiving turkey.”
- “We will visit your family for the next Thanksgiving Day.“
Take a look at the words that are capitalized. They are either at the beginning of a sentence or they are a proper noun. Note that the word “Day” is also capitalized because it’s part of the phrase, if the word “day” is alone it shouldn’t be capitalized. This happens with other holidays like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or Independence Day.
Similarly, the word “Thanksgiving” may not be capitalized if it is being used as a general noun to refer to “giving gratitude” instead of referring to the specific day.
To Summarize
It’s normal to have doubts about grammar, but is more important to clear them out! Remember that all holidays are proper nouns and all proper nouns have to be capitalized in English. Every language has different rules about capitalization so don’t apply these rules to any other language and vice-versa.
So we hoped we have solved your doubts and now you can enjoy Thanksgiving with your family!
