Excess turkey, mountains of gravy-topped mashed potatoes, bushels of Brussels sprouts, Thanksgiving today looks pretty much the same on both sides of the Canadian-US border, but it was not always so.
In both countries, the festival is celebrated as an opportunity for families to reunite, be thankful, watch football and eat too much. But that is where the similarities end.
Canada’s holiday, celebrated on the second Sunday of October, goes further back than our southern cousins’.
Canada’s first Thanksgiving, celebrated on the shores of Baffin Island by Sir Martin Frobisher and his crew in 1578 to thank God for their safe landing, did not include any sizzling drumsticks. Try salted beef, rock-hard crackers and mushy peas. That was 43 years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock and had their more historically-noted first meal. Even the Father of New France, Samuel de Champlain, beat the Pilgrims to Thanksgiving. In 1604, he started a custom of celebrating the harvest with an annual feast.
The American festival is marred by the subsequent destruction of the first nations people who helped feed the Pilgrims after they arrived. Thankfully, the Canadian holiday does not share this tragedy, although Canada’s record of the way first nations have been treated by the country does not inspire pride, rather shame.
Harvest festivals are not something that either country can claim as having invented though, as they stretch back to ancient times when ancestors gave thanks for nature’s bounty.
Canadians have so much to be thankful for in 2014. A high standard of living is enjoyed by many, and all are blessed to live in a land full of natural wonder and majesty. A safe, tolerant society has been built where everyone, no matter their country of origin or religion, lives together in peace.
However, that is not to say improvements are unnecessary. Despite the fact Canada is one of the richest countries in the world, thousands are still denied a full share of the country’s wealth. Poverty remains an unshakeable problem.
Beyond counting blessings this weekend, why not share them? Give to a charity of choice, a church or simply a neighbour in need of a little help. Remember, actions speak louder than words.
