Happy Canadian Thanksgiving

Image by Linda Roisum from Pixabay

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends.

To my American friends, here's a little bit about Thanksgiving as celebrated by those north of the border.

Thanksgiving in Canada is a national civic holiday, not a religious one. It was first celebrated in 1578, when English explorer Martin Frobisher held a ceremony to give thanks for his safe arrival in what is now Nunavut.

At various times over the next few centuries,  Thanksgiving was observed at various times over the following centuries to celebrate momentous occasions such as the birth of a royal child or military victories.

Gradually, the celebration began to focus more on the harvest for the agrarain country. In 1762, the first community Thanksgiving celebrated the harvest in Halifax. 

In 1879, Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday with the date originally set as November 6th. As the years passed, the date varied though and after the end of World War I, it was merged with Armistice Day.

Finally, in 1957, the Canadian Parliament officially set the second Monday of October as Thanksgiving Day, making it a holiday separate from Remembrance Day in November. It's still not a federal holiday in some provinces, and in Quebec, it's called Action de grâce.

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

I didn't know much about Thanksgiving in Canada so I'm glad I did a little research on it. I hope you found it interesting too.