Notes:

The names of most holidays stress the name of the holiday—e.g. Memorial, Labor, Mothers—and not the word “day”— with the exceptions of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, which stress “day” instead. This is because of the contrast, which is stated or implied with Christmas and New Year’s “Eve,” since both holidays include the evening before as well as the day itself—for example, He went to a party on New Year’s Eve and had dinner with friends on New Year’s Day. With Thanksgiving the implied contrast is with the following Friday, since Thanksgiving is always on the fourth Thursday of November and many people consider the holiday to be the entire weekend or at least Friday as well. Therefore, in referring to the day itself, we stress the word “day,” as in “We’re taking a hike on Thanksgiving Day.” However, most people simply say “Thanksgiving.”