Happy Thanksgiving Canada

**mspepper** · 10-10-2004, 01:41 PM

Happy ThanksGiving to all my fellow Canadians and there kitties tooooo

Patty

**sasha the cat** · 10-10-2004, 07:37 PM

MsPepper,

Thanks for the kind wishes! The very first Canadian Thanksgiving celebration was in 1578 -- 43 years before the pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts!

Martin Frobisher [an English explorer] wanted to give thanks for his safe arrival to the New World and he celebrated the first Canadian Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated in either late October or early November. Declared a national holiday in 1879, and celebrated on November 6th until 1957 which was the official Thanksgiving holiday.

Canadian harvest season arrives earlier than American harvest season since Canada is further North. On January 31, 1957, Canadian Parliament announced that on the second Monday in October, Thanksgiving would be a day of general thanksgiving for the bountiful harvest season in Canada.

The proclamation stated:

"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."

Canadian Thanksgiving is about giving thanks for the harvest season; US Thanksgiving recalls the arrival of pilgrims [The Mayflower] in November of 1620.

Canadians and Americans celebrate much the same way: family gatherings where traditional foods are served. Thanksgiving means parades, pumpkin pie and turkey -- and giving thanks for the abundance of blessings Canadians and Americans have -- not only in our harvests -- but in so many other ways. We are democratic nations with many resources as well as having such bountiful harvest. We are, indeed, very blessed.