Thanksgiving

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Canadian and American cultures are not the same. A fact that the world tends to consider the two countries almost the same but ask a Canadian and he would tell you how different the cultures of the two countries are including the way Thanksgiving is celebrated in the two countries.

Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October while in America the festival is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.

While many assume that Canada- being the younger nation- copied the concept from US, but history says otherwise.

Canadian Thanksgiving celebration, in fact, dates back to 1578 after Martin Frobisher’s third voyage to Canada. He had lost one of his ships on the way and had hosted a big celebration as a token of thanks to the people of Nunavut for providing a safe passage.

The incident took place years before the first recorded US feast between the Pilgrims and Native Americans at Plymouth in 1621. The event is now a much somber one in many Native American households as they lost many of their own in a war that followed a generation later.

There are others who suggest that the festival in Canada is always centered around the Harvest season which is earlier than the US. Many states that the idea of Thanksgiving came from the French settlers in Canada in the early 17th century who wanted to celebrate their harvest in what was then known as New France.

A national holiday was formalised though only in 1879. Even then the date wasn’t fixed until 1957- the government officially named the second Monday of October as Thanksgiving Day in Canada. While it began as a religious festival, over the years it has become a day to spend with loved ones.

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