Here is a tidbit of Thanksgiving info....
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nf.sympatico.ca
A holiday stuffed with history
After stuffing the bird, making the cranberry sauce, fixing the dressing and baking the
pumpkin pie, you already know it takes more than a little planning to prepare a holiday
feast, but in the case of Thanksgiving, the planning has been hundreds of years in the
making.
And it's no coincidence that the same holiday should fall on two different days in Canada
and the United States, says Dorothy Duncan, Executive Director of the Ontario Historical
Society. Because of the seasonal differences between the two countries, our harvest
happens earlier in the year, as does our Canadian Thanksgiving.
But that's not the only difference. "Pilgrims," explains Vivian Nelles, professor of Canadian
History at York University, are an entirely American phenomenon. "There were no pilgrims
involved in our Thanksgiving. None."
In 1576, English explorer Martin Frobisher set out to find a northern passage that would
lead him to the Orient. He then spent two years trying to become rich mining what he
thought was gold ore and attempted to establish the first English settlement in North
America on what would come to be known as Baffin Island. While he failed on all counts,
he did celebrate the first formal North American Thanksgiving, a full 43 years before the
pilgrims of Massachusetts at Plymouth Rock.
Celebrated on the second Monday in October, by proclamation of Parliament in 1957,
Canadian Thanksgiving is "a day of general thanksgiving to almighty God for the bountiful
harvest with which Canada has been blessed."
The day is celebrated in Canada as a national holiday rather than a religious one, but its true
roots and European heritage rest in something considerably more pagan. The original
festivities date back 2,000 years to Celtic priests, the druids, who celebrated a harvest
festival. Once their summer's harvest had been safely stored, the Celts prayed for their sun
god in the coming battle with the darkness and cold of winter. The harvest season was of
such importance it marked the end of the Celtic calendar year.
As their harvest rituals evolved, eventually combining with the Christian Feast of Saints,
"Thanksgiving" as we know it was born, and later, brought to the new world. Records of
Port Royal, Nova Scotia, dating back to 1710, note October 10 as a celebration of
thanksgiving for the return of the town to the English. In 1763, the citizens of Halifax
commemorated the end of the Seven Years War in a similar ceremony. From there the
tradition slowly moved across the country.
Canada's Parliament of 1879 formally declared November 6 as a day of Thanksgiving,
marking that day every year until after World War I, when Thanksgiving and Armistice
(Remembrance) Day was celebrated in the same week.
It's current date, the second Monday in October, was regarded by former Ontario Premier
E.C. Drury, as a farmer's holiday stolen by cities to provide them a long weekend when the
weather was better than winter.
So, for the day, for the harvest, and for the generous aroma of the turkey roasting in the
oven, let us be thankful. |
