Happy Thanksgiving!

Every year, on the second Monday in October, Canadians gather to celebrate Thanksgiving Day! We spend time with our family and eat a big dinner together. It’s the end of the harvest and winter is coming! In Canada, Thanksgiving Day began as a day to thank God for a good harvest. Today, most Canadians are no longer farmers and Canadian society has became more secular, but we still carry on this tradition! We give thanks for enough food to eat, for a good life, and for family and friends.

Everyone eats turkey on Thanksgiving! Dinner also includes all sorts of fall vegetables that can be grown in a cold climate, and pumpkin pie for dessert! My mom usually makes turkey with stuffing (bread mixed with spices and stuffed into the turkey while it cooks) and cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, mashed squash, brussels sprouts (miniature cabbage), and carrots in a brown sugar sauce. I’m not sure why we eat turkey specifically on this day, it’s just the tradition! (Maybe it’s because a turkey is big enough to feed a large family?)

Listen to a story about one of our Thanksgiving dinners!

 

 

How did Thanksgiving begin?

Thanksgiving originated in Europe as a celebration at the end of a successful harvest season. The harvest is the time of year, long after summer has ended but before the cold winter begins, when all the crops are collected from the fields to be eaten or stored for winter. People would gather to celebrate and thank God for a good harvest and an abundance of food. This tradition was later brought to North America by European settlers.

It is a statutory holiday (an official holiday declared by the government) so no one has to work on this day and most stores are closed.

The Americans celebrate Thanksgiving later than we do. Canada is a colder climate, so our harvest season usually ends before the American harvest. In addition to giving thanks for the harvest season, Americans also remember the Pilgrims who fled England and landed in American in 1620 to start the first permanent English settlement in New England (northeastern America).

 

 

Thanksgiving Day is right in the middle of fall. At this time of year, it’s getting colder. The summer is long over and the leaves on the trees are turning colour, so we know that winter is just around the corner!

 

To learn more about Canada and the holidays we celebrate, check out the Reading page!