Let's Celebrate Thanksgiving

By Ann Draper

Canada's Thanksgiving contains a colourful history. Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean. He had safely returned from a search for the Northwest Passage, avoiding the later fate of Henry Hudson and Sir John Franklin. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony in Newfoundland to give thanks for surviving the long journey. The feast was one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations by Europeans in North America. Frobisher was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean named after him - Frobisher Bay. French settlers, having crossed the ocean, arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1604 and also held huge feasts of thanks. They formed "The Order of Good Cheer," and gladly shared their food with their First Nations neighbours. After the Seven Years War ended in 1763 handing over New France to the British, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving. Beginning in 1799, Thanksgiving days were observed intermittently. After the American Revolution, American refugees who remained loyal to Great Britain moved from the newly independent United States and came to Canada. They brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada. The first Thanksgiving Day after Canadian Confederation was observed as a civic holiday on April 5th 1872 to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII} from a serious illness. Beginning in 1879 Thanksgiving Day was observed every year, but the date was proclaimed annually and changed year to year.

The theme of the Thanksgiving holiday also changed each year to reflect an important event to be thankful for. In the early years it was for an abundant harvest and occasionally a special anniversary. After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on Mondays. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day. Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in most jurisdictions of Canada, with Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia being exceptions. "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 of October". proclaimed by the Canadian Parliament on January 31st 1957. As a liturgical festival, Thanksgiving corresponds to the English and continental European Harvest festival, with churches decorated with cornucopias, pumpkins, corn, wheat sheaves, cranberries, apples, rice, and barley, and in some parts fresh venison, game birds and even beaver tail. Harvest hymns were sung on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend and scriptural selections were drawn from biblical works relating to the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot. While the actual Thanksgiving holiday is on Monday, October 11th this year, let's celebrate on any day of the three day weekend with family and neighbours by giving thanks and by sharing our bountiful harvest of BC food.