HAPPY CANADIAN THANKSGIVING DAY

Monday October 11, 2004

from Betty Van Volkenburg
Publisher

Our wet summer in the northeast has led into a lovely fall with grass still as green as early spring. My Burning Bush in front of my house has turned the reddest I've ever seen it, and the maple in the backyard are tinged with red and gold.

Even though the temperature is lower, my spirits are raised by the beauty of this season. While we in the US get ready for a long weekend to honor Columbus Day, my Canadian family gets ready to celebrate Thanksgiving Day on October 11th.

This is not just a Canadian and US celebration, as our ancestors brought this tradition with them from "the old country".

The online Canadian Encyclopedia gives us this background:

Thanksgiving Day Proclaimed as "a day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed"

Thanksgiving draws upon 3 traditions:

1. harvest celebrations in European peasant societies for which the symbol was the cornucopia (horn of plenty)
2. formal observances, such as that celebrated by Martin FROBISHER in the eastern Arctic in 1578 - the first North American Thanksgiving
3. and the Pilgrims' celebration of their first harvest in Massachusetts (1621) involving the uniquely American turkey, squash and pumpkin.

The celebration was brought to Nova Scotia in the 1750s and the citizens of Halifax commemorated the end of the SEVEN YEARS' WAR (1763) with a day of Thanksgiving. Loyalists brought the celebration to other parts of the country. In 1879 Parliament declared Nov 6 as a day of Thanksgiving; it was celebrated as a national rather than a religious holiday. Later and earlier dates were observed, the most popular being the third Monday in Oct. After WWI, Thanksgiving and Armistice (later Remembrance) Day were celebrated in the same week. It was not until 31 Jan 1957 that Parliament proclaimed the observance of Thanksgiving on the second Monday in Oct. E.C. DRURY, the former "Farmer-Premier" of Ontario lamented later that "the farmers' own holiday has been stolen by the towns" to give them a long weekend when the weather was better.

Author: DAVID MILLS  in the Canadian encyclopedia

You can find the official proclamation here:

Thursday, 10 Jan. 1799 In signal victory over our enemy and for the manifold and inestimable blessings which our Kingdoms and Provinces have received and daily continue to receive

You can find more on Canada at the official government site

http://canada.gc.ca/main_e.html  

including an account of the defeat of the American invasion of Canada on October 13, 1812

Enjoy your holiday weekend - on both sides of our border.