Happy Thanksgiving - and why Canadians are happy about it!
The History of Canadian Thanksgiving
(compliments of Zoe Curnoe, posted on Facebook 10:32pm Saturday, Oct 6)
I realized last night in talking to a couple of American guys who I work with that they didn't even know that we celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada. They looked confused and said, but you don't have pilgrims? So I tried to remember exactly why we do have thanksgiving in Canada and all I could remember was the idea of the potlatch and sharing food of the harvest. So here it is, the actual reason we eat Turkey and get sleepy every October.
Long ago, before the first Europeans arrived in North America, the farmers in Europe held celebrations at harvest time. To give thanks for their good fortune and the abundance of food, the farm workers filled a curved goat's horn with fruit and grain. This symbol was called a cornucopia or horn of plenty. When they came to Canada they brought this tradition with them.
In the year 1578, the English navigator Martin Frobisher held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies.
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 formed "The Order of Good Cheer" which started a tradition of feasting to celebrate a good harvest sharing their food with the first nations in neighbouring communities.
After the Seven Year's War ended in 1763, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving.
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 second Monday in October."
(I can do without the God part....
I like to think of Thanksgiving as a time when you cook a whole lot of yummy food and share it with all of the people that are important to you.)
Did You Know?
Americans did not invent Thanksgiving. It began in Canada. Frobisher's celebration in 1578 was 43 years before the pilgrims gave thanks in 1621 for the bounty that ended a year of hardships and death.
The Pilgrims were English colonists who had founded a permanent European settlement at Plymouth Massachusetts.
The Americans who remained faithful to the government in England were known as Loyalists. At the time of the American revolution, they moved to Canada and also spread the Thanksgiving celebration to other parts of the country where it had not yet been established.
Cool US/Canada connection. :)
(compliments of Zoe Curnoe, posted on Facebook 10:32pm Saturday, Oct 6)
I realized last night in talking to a couple of American guys who I work with that they didn't even know that we celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada. They looked confused and said, but you don't have pilgrims? So I tried to remember exactly why we do have thanksgiving in Canada and all I could remember was the idea of the potlatch and sharing food of the harvest. So here it is, the actual reason we eat Turkey and get sleepy every October.
Long ago, before the first Europeans arrived in North America, the farmers in Europe held celebrations at harvest time. To give thanks for their good fortune and the abundance of food, the farm workers filled a curved goat's horn with fruit and grain. This symbol was called a cornucopia or horn of plenty. When they came to Canada they brought this tradition with them.
In the year 1578, the English navigator Martin Frobisher held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies.
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 formed "The Order of Good Cheer" which started a tradition of feasting to celebrate a good harvest sharing their food with the first nations in neighbouring communities.
After the Seven Year's War ended in 1763, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving.
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 second Monday in October."
(I can do without the God part....
I like to think of Thanksgiving as a time when you cook a whole lot of yummy food and share it with all of the people that are important to you.)
Did You Know?
Americans did not invent Thanksgiving. It began in Canada. Frobisher's celebration in 1578 was 43 years before the pilgrims gave thanks in 1621 for the bounty that ended a year of hardships and death.
The Pilgrims were English colonists who had founded a permanent European settlement at Plymouth Massachusetts.
The Americans who remained faithful to the government in England were known as Loyalists. At the time of the American revolution, they moved to Canada and also spread the Thanksgiving celebration to other parts of the country where it had not yet been established.
Cool US/Canada connection. :)