Happy Thanksgiving Canada -- We Celebrate it First

It’s Thanksgiving here in Canada today. These days we celebrate the day to give thanks for the harvest and all that we have in our lives to give thanks for. It wasn’t always that way or even always on this day.

First Thanksgiving in North America

It was during the third voyage of Sir Martin Frobisher that the first Thanksgiving in North America took place. Frobisher was attempting to find a Northwest Passage to allow ships to travel around North America to the Orient. He was also attempting to establish a small settlement on Frobisher Bay.

During rough weather one of the fifteen ships in their fleet went down taking most of their building supplies with it. Many of the ships were blown off course. When they finally got back together and landed in Newfoundland in May 1578 they held a day of Thanksgiving. Their ‘feast’ consisted of salted beef, mushy peas and crackers.

Incorporating the thanksgiving religious festival tradition of Europe, the fleet’s chaplain Anglican priest Robert Wolfall held the first communion service in North America.

French Celebrate Thanksgiving

Around 1604 Samuel de Champlain arrived at Halifax with settlers to form a permanent settlement of New France. Following the harvest in the fall and along with their First Nations neighbours they held feasts of thanksgiving. The First Nations had held dances and rituals after the harvest long before Europeans arrived. They did them to insure a bountiful harvest the following year.

Thanksgiving Until Confederation

Prior to Confederation, Thanksgiving wasn’t a regularly held festival as it is today. They were held some years for specific reasons, usually to give thanks for an event. For example in 1763 after New France was turned over to the British, citizens of Halifax held a special day of thanksgiving.

Dates and the reasons for thanksgiving were different in Upper and Lower Canada. The two parts merged following the Lower Canada Rebellion in 1850 and when thanksgiving was held it was the same date. Between 1850 and Confederation in 1867 Thanksgiving was observed on six occasions.

British Empire Loyalists Influence

During and after the American Revolutionary war those who remained loyal to the crown travelled to Canada and settled. The British Empire Loyalists had a profound influence on life in Canada, especially in Ontario and east.

They brought along the Thanksgiving traditions which our American neighbours had adopted of the eating of Turkey, pumpkin pie and fall vegetables like squash. Gradually, those traditions became part of the Canadian observances.

The Date of Thanksgiving Remains Canadian

Thanksgiving was declared to be a national holiday in November 1879. It was left as a movable holiday which was commonly held on the third Monday in October. The government would issue a proclamation each year establishing the date and the theme for Thanksgiving each year.

After WW1 the government issued a proclamation establishing the observance of both Thanksgiving Day and Armistice Day as the Monday of the week in which November 11th fell. Armistice Day commemorated the close of WW1 on November 11th at 11am.

In 1931 the government passed legislation separating the two observances. Thanksgiving moved to the second Monday in October by an annual government proclamation to celebrate and give thanks for the fall harvest. Armistice Day became Remembrance Day and was observed on November 11th.

Parliament set the day to the second Monday in 1957 and set it as a statutory holiday. The holiday is recognized across the country but isn’t a statutory holiday in the Atlantic provinces. Workers in federally regulated fields and of course, the federal government get the stat holiday but not other workers in those areas of the country.

Conclusion

Our American neighbours celebrate Columbus Day today, so I’ll wish them a happy Columbus Day if that is appropriate.

We don’t have a tradition of a day of shopping madness on the day after Thanksgiving. We get to enjoy our turkey fog at a quieter pace.

So, in case you missed it at the start of my post:

Source

---

---

If you like this, please follow me and upvote the post.

If you’d like to see the other days I’ve posted, just visit my profile

If you’d like to be notified when I post next, join my mailing list here.

---