Canadians and Americans both enjoy too much pie, turkey or tofu turkey and have large gatherings with relatives they might otherwise avoid on their Thanksgiving holidays. So… how are the two holidays different?
American Thanksgiving celebrates a time of peace between the "Pilgrims" who left England to settle in the "New World" and the indigenous Native Americans, who taught them how to survive in their new home. It can be argued that their magnanimity didn't turn out so well for the Native Americans in the long run, but that's another story.
American Thanksgiving is also a harvest holiday. It's celebrated at the end of November because the harvest season typically falls later in the US (of course, all this is pre-global-warming) than it does in Canada, since Canada is farther north.
Canadian Thanksgiving is first and foremost a harvest Cclebration, created to commemorate a successful harvest season. We celebrate this on the second Monday in October.
The history of Thanksgiving in Canada also goes back to enterprising English folk, notably English explorer Martin Frobisher. He'd been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient, and while he didn't find that, he did "discover" the rich ecosystem of North America. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving his long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving.
Frobisher was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay.
Simultaneously French settlers were crossing the ocean. Arriving in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, they also held huge feasts of thanks. In the tradition of the open-minded French, they formed "The Order of Good Cheer" and shared food and wine with their First Nations and Native American neighbours.
Some of the menu similarities arise from the fact that during the American Revolution, Americans who remained loyal to England moved to Canada. They brought with them the traditions of America's Thanksgiving harvest holiday, such as the cornucopia, turkey and pumpkin pie.
There is another similarity that we at Green Earth Organics wish to note. Both "Thanksgiving" holidays celebrate a time when foreigners from across the sea traveled to a land populated by thriving native peoples. And both holidays mark the start of a gradual period of marginalization and displacement of the indigenous peoples who called the "New World" their "Only World".
American Thanksgiving celebrates a time of peace between the "Pilgrims" who left England to settle in the "New World" and the indigenous Native Americans, who taught them how to survive in their new home. It can be argued that their magnanimity didn't turn out so well for the Native Americans in the long run, but that's another story.
American Thanksgiving is also a harvest holiday. It's celebrated at the end of November because the harvest season typically falls later in the US (of course, all this is pre-global-warming) than it does in Canada, since Canada is farther north.
Canadian Thanksgiving is first and foremost a harvest Cclebration, created to commemorate a successful harvest season. We celebrate this on the second Monday in October.
The history of Thanksgiving in Canada also goes back to enterprising English folk, notably English explorer Martin Frobisher. He'd been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient, and while he didn't find that, he did "discover" the rich ecosystem of North America. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving his long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving.
Frobisher was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay.
Simultaneously French settlers were crossing the ocean. Arriving in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, they also held huge feasts of thanks. In the tradition of the open-minded French, they formed "The Order of Good Cheer" and shared food and wine with their First Nations and Native American neighbours.
Some of the menu similarities arise from the fact that during the American Revolution, Americans who remained loyal to England moved to Canada. They brought with them the traditions of America's Thanksgiving harvest holiday, such as the cornucopia, turkey and pumpkin pie.
There is another similarity that we at Green Earth Organics wish to note. Both "Thanksgiving" holidays celebrate a time when foreigners from across the sea traveled to a land populated by thriving native peoples. And both holidays mark the start of a gradual period of marginalization and displacement of the indigenous peoples who called the "New World" their "Only World".
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