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Thanksgiving is Monday (Oct. 10).
Photo by Jaana Björk
Canadian Thanksgiving coming up on Oct. 10
Published 2:35 PDT, Thu October 6, 2022
Last Updated: 2:35 PDT, Thu October 6, 2022
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Thanksgiving is a holiday celebrated by many around the world to give thanks for bountiful harvest and good fortune.
The annual holiday is often highlighted by a meal that may include turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, vegetables, cranberry sauce, gravy, and pumpkin pie.
In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October every year. In the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. People in Grenada, Liberia, and Saint Lucia also celebrate the holiday.
Some First Nations held ceremonies and festivals to celebrate the completion and bounty of harvest. The first Thanksgiving by Europeans in North America, which took place in 1578, was a celebration of thanks for special fortune by explorer Martin Frobisher after he had survived a long journey in his quest to find a northern passage from Europe to Asia.
Refugees who had been fleeing the American Civil War in the 19th century brought the custom of an annual Thanksgiving celebration to Canada. Thanksgiving continued to be held yearly, although not associated with a specific date. The first annual celebration of Thanksgiving in Canada was Nov. 6, 1879.
In 1931, Canadian Thanksgiving was moved to a Monday in October and in 1957, it was determined that it would be held on the second Monday of October.
Although it is a national holiday, Thanksgiving is not marked in all provinces. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island do not celebrate it as a statutory holiday.
In America, the first Thanksgiving occurred in November 1621 when the pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, resulting in a celebratory feast. Some say that the first true Thanksgiving was in 1623 when residents gave thanks for the rain that ended a drought.
The first national Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed by the first president of the United States, George Washington, in 1879. On Dec. 26, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill into law making Thanksgiving a national holiday on the fourth Thursday of every November.
Many people take time off work to prepare a special meal with their loved ones. In some parts of Canada, there are special items unique to the location.
In Newfoundland a Jiggs’ dinner, a boiled meat dish paired with a split pea pudding is enjoyed over turkey. In Ontario, some people serve butter tarts, which are bite sized pastry shells stuffed with a syrup filling.
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