Today is Thanksgiving in Canada. Yesterday, someone asked me why Canadians celebrated thanksgiving and why so early, and I did not know! So, I thought it was about time that I read on the holiday to learn why Canadians celebrate it and why is it on a different date than Americans.
I first wanted to understand the history of Thanksgiving and I was surprised to learn that it originated from England and wasn’t on a specific day! They used to call it Days of Thanksgiving, were religious services and would be celebrated whenever there was something to give thanks to. They also had Days of Fasting, which were called for when there was an unexpected disaster or a threat from on high. Exemples of when Days of Thanksgiving were celebrated are after the victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588 and after the deliverance of Queen Anne in 1605. When English settlers landed in America in 1619, they had a charter dictating them to have annual Thanksgiving prayers on the day the ship arrived, on December 4th.
It was only a century later, in 1789, that George Washington proclaimed the first nationwide Thanksgiving in America would be on November 26. Abraham Lincoln then decided to set Thanksgiving to be on the last Thursday in November in celebration of the bounties that had continued to fall on the Union. Finally, Roosevelt changed the holiday to the next to last Thursday in November in an effort to boost the economy. Back then, they would only start promoting for Christmas after Thanksgiving, so they didn’t have much time to shop for the season. With Thanksgiving now being a week earlier, it gave people an extra week to spend money!
As for Canada, we had our own form of Thanksgiving days, but nothing official and it wasn’t occuring every year. During the American Revolution, though, some American refugees who were still loyal to Great Britain moved to Canada and brought their American Thanksgiving with them. We started celebrating it on different dates, for exemple, in 1816, Thanksgiving was celebrated for the termination of the War of 1812. It was also celebrated at the end of the Lower Canada Rebellion in 1838. From 1879 onward, Thanksgiving was celebrated every year on a Thursday in November. After World War I, it was decided that Armistice Day and Thanksgiving would both be celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11 occurred. Militia would hold “sham battles” for public entertainment, but they asked for an earlier date so they could take advantage of the warmer weather to draw a bigger crowd. It was then decided that Thanksgiving and Armistice Day would be two separate holidays, Armistice Day being renamed to Remembrance Day. Thanksgiving would then be celebrated on the second Monday in October. It was made official by the Parliament in 1957.
I love the spirit of Thanksgiving, that it’s to celebrate what we are thankful for. I find it very interesting that it used to be celebrated whenever something to be thankful for happened and not just once a year. I also learned that it originated from England! It’s also very funny to me that the reason the Americans celebrate it on the next to last Thursday in November is for economic reasons. It’s so American of them hahaha. I thought there were more special reasons as to why we celebrated Thanksgiving on those days, but it’s actually nothing with a deep meaning!
To answer my original questions, Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving for the same original reasons as Americans and England. To give thanks for the good things that happened during the year. As to why we celebrate on different days, there isn’t really a specific reason, because each date was just randomly chosen from what I could read. Other than Americans wanting more time to shop for Christmas, there doesn’t seem to be a specific reason as to why they chose the next to last Thursday in November. And for Canadians, the militia wanted warmer weather so they moved it in October, but why the second Monday in October? Who knows!
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