Sunday, October 8, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving!


Happy Thanksgiving!

This is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. We celebrated with a wonderful turkey dinner at my parent's house yesterday. Although Saturday is not technically Thanksgiving Day, we celebrate during the weekend on the day that best fits everyone's schedule.

In Canada Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. Unlike the American tradition of remembering Pilgrims and settling in the New World, Canadians give thanks for a successful harvest. The harvest season falls earlier in Canada compared to the United States due to the simple fact that Canada is further north.

The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. He did not succeed but he did establish a settlement in Northern America. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay.

At the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed 'The Order of Good Cheer' and gladly shared their food with their Indian neighbors. After the Seven Year War ended in 1763, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving. During the American Revolution, Americans who remained loyal to England moved to Canada where they brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada.

Eventually in 1879, Parliament declared November 6th a day of Thanksgiving and a national holiday. Over the years many dates were used for Thanksgiving, the most popular was the 3rd Monday in October.

After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11th occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day. Finally, on January 31st, 1957, Parliament proclaimed..."A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed ... to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October.

13 comments:

  1. Hi Norma, Happy Thanksgiving!!! I hadn't realized that Canada had their own celebration, but why not? It has it's own history...*VBS* I think celebrating the harvest is a wonderful thing..*VBS* Love the hexagon table topper you made and taught, but also the runner that ran and ran...LOL. It's pretty darn clever to be made from the scraps of the former. Great job on that one!! Feels good to be able to see here and read some blogs again..I've missed you guys!!!! Hugs, Finn

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  2. That was a really interesting bit of history to read. I didn't really know the history of Thanksgiving myself. Thank you.

    We had our dinner Saturday night as well.
    Happy Thanksgiving.

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  3. I had looked on a Canadian National Holiday website and knew your Thanksgiving Day was tomorrow. It used to be marked on the calendars DJ and I purchased each year too along with the moon phases. No such luck this year. I really enjoyed reading about your history of the event.

    Cute graphics you posted along with your blog entry!

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  4. Happy Thanksgiving and great background for your readers! In Maine we actually learn Canadian History in schools - nice for my family b/c we had ancestors in Canada earlier than we did in the US. Glad you could enjoy the holiday with family and friends.

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  5. Thanks for sharing some Canadian history with us- its good to learn the hows and whys of other countries.

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  6. I love history and I really found this post interesting. Thanks for teaching me something new.

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  7. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for sharing the history of this celebration in Canada.

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  8. Great history lesson. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

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  9. I'm glad you had a great family occasion.
    Strangely I knew some of your history lesson( but not all). I think we learnt some Canadian history at school, also some American and heaps of British along with our own New Zealand history.
    Well told !

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  10. Thank you for that lesson! I knew Canadians celebrated before we do but I didn't know the history.

    Judy L.

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  11. love your post on Canda's Thanksgiving-the history behind it. what beautiful small quilts you have done recently-I like the reward of working on these to balance a challenging customer quilt job!

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  12. Thanks for the History lesson... & Happy belated Thanksgiving.

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