What is Thanksgiving a celebration of?
Canadian Thanksgiving, though named similarly to the American Thanksgiving, traces its roots to hundreds of years prior to the traditional American holiday. The Canadian celebration of Thanksgiving, which takes place on the second Monday of October, has its origins in the Pagan festivals that marked the completion of the harvest. The people would thank the gods, spirits, and Earth for the harvest bounty. Over the centuries, the traditions were ‘formalised’ and brought over to what would become Canada. By the simple fact that Canada resides next to the American cultural monolith, many Canadians mistakenly bridge the American folklore of the Pilgrims and Indians into the Canadian holiday. A plus of celebrating Thanksgiving in October is that we have a nice break before Christmas, so we don’t suffer from turkey exhaustion! The leftovers are generally gone well enough in advance so we’ll have forgotten about all the turkey and trimmings before tucking in during the Christmas holiday.
