Canadian Thanksgiving

[tsquared]

I can see  fresh snow on the tops of the Olympic mountains tonight as I post this--I guess fall is here and with it, our Thanksgiving. We are doing a traditional turkey dinner but I might smoke some oysters for some appies. I hope all the Canuckleheads on the board have  a great weekend with family and friends.
Cheers.
T2

[MWS]

Cheers Tom,

Maple smoked turkey breast at my place tommorrow. I may even wrap it in bacon. Have a great long weekend everyone.

[Mr Walleye]

To all my fellow Canucks.... Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

I'm just heading to a wedding today and to the traditional feast tomorrow at the in-laws and hopefully a quiet Monday.

Have a good one everybody and if travelling... drive safe!  ;)

Mike

[Habanero Smoker]

Wishing everyone north of the border, a great weekend.

[Wildcat]

Have a nice Thanksgiving weekend my northern friends.

[Smokin Soon]

TS, I never knew anything about Thanksgiving in Canada, so decided to do some reading. Interesting stuff reading about Martin Frobisher and all the related events. See that? You just made me more worldly!

[MWS]

Good stuff Smokin Soon..

FYI, to our American friends.
The Canadian Thanksgiving follows the traditions of Europe and celebrates the harvest. That's why ours is in October. Same name different reasons.

The very first Thanksgiving celebration in North America took place in Canada when Martin Frobisher, an explorer from England, arrived in Newfoundland in 1578. He wanted to give thanks for his safe arrival to the New World. That means the first Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated 43 years before the pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts! 

Cheers, now back to my pint.  ;)

[Smokin Soon]

Now that I know what the Canadian Thanksgiving is all about, I would suggest that more of our USA members check it out! It's kind of the same, but happened so long before ours. Could just be the history buff in me but it is not even mentioned in any world history classes that I have taken. This has been very informative as well as giving me an excuse to cook 2 thanksgiving dinners in one month! [wifey does not like turkey] Now we need some new stuff from our Canadian members about seasoning, stuffing and such.

[La Quinta]

Happy Thnksgiving to our Canadian buds...Very interesting history...who knew? Thanks for the education!!  :)

[NePaSmoKer]

Happy Thanksgiving to all my northern friends

nepas

[geofite]

How Much Do You Know About the Canadian Thanksgiving?

True or False:

1. The Canadian Thanksgiving is about Pilgrims and a ship called 'The Mayflower'.

2. The famous English explorer, Martin Frobisher, conducted the first Thanksgiving service on the shores of Newfoundland in 1578.

3. The Canadian Thanksgiving is based on the Order of Good Cheer established by Samuel  de Champlain.

If you answered 'false' to all three, you are correct!

First of all, the story of the Pilgrims, who came to Massachusetts aboard their ship, 'The Mayflower', is an American legend.  It is a lovely story, but it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving in Canada.

Secondly, Martin Frobisher never set foot on the shores of Newfoundland!  Robert Ruby, an editor of the Baltimore Sun and the author of "The Unknown Shore" a book about the voyages of Frobisher states: 

" Martin Frobisher never set foot in Newfoundland, and the minister who travelled with the fleet in 1578 was the Rev. Robert Woolfall (not Wolf). He led prayers aboard the "Judith" when a storm in July separated the ship from the rest of Frobisher's fleet. And he did indeed lead a prayer when the surviving parts of the expedition reached Countess of Warwick Island, in August. According to the various logs and diaries, it was not accompanied by a special meal. Was it a first thanksgiving? Well, it was the first English prayer service in North America. And we can characterize it however we want."

Thirdly, the Order of Good Cheer existed, but it likely had little, if anything, to do with Thanksgiving in Canada according to Peter Stevens of York University who wrote a fine paper on the origins of the holiday*, the gist of which appears below the next paragraph.

The truth of the matter is that Thanksgiving in Canada can be traced back to Ontario in the mid 1880s.  Protestant church leaders decided to 'borrow' the American tradition of Thanksgiving, but they wished to turn Thanksgiving into a nationalistic, religious event which excluded Catholics, the poor, and many minority groups.  This approach eventually failed:

They did not simply duplicate the American Thanksgiving festival. Church leaders, particularly after Confederation, felt it their moral and historical duty to shape the Canadian identity in the Christian mould and saw the adoption of the Thanksgiving holiday as a way to do this. They created the Canadian Thanksgiving as an exclusively religious event that was white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant, pro-British and often anti-American in nationalist intent.

The Protestant clergy successfully lobbied the Canadian government to create Canada's first, national Thanksgiving in 1859. But it was only proclaimed sporadically in the ensuing years, as church, state and commerce each wrestled for control of the holiday. By the 1870s, American holiday traditions, such as family gatherings for turkey dinner and stories of the pilgrims, took hold in Canada, creating both   commercial opportunities for businesses, and a way for Catholics to celebrate the day as a non-religious event. With this, the Protestant clergy lost exclusive control of Thanksgiving Day. They lost all influence over the holiday in 1908, when the government appointed Thanksgiving for a Monday rather than a Thursday. Transportation companies had asked for the change, feeling that a long weekend would increase holiday travel. Churches opposed the move, fearing that it would hurt church attendance, as it did. In 1957, Parliament passed legislation to make Thanksgiving an annual holiday celebrated on the second Monday of October, eliminating the need for annual proclamations.

To Protestant clergymen, the early history of Thanksgiving is, perhaps, a tragedy, since they lost control over the holiday. From another perspective, it is a story of triumph. Catholics, workers, ethnic minorities and other groups excluded from the clergy's notions of Thanksgiving and Canadian identity democratized the holiday and adopted their own holiday practices, asserting that they, too, had something to contribute to Canadian society and culture.

http://www.proudcanadiankids.ca/Canadian%20Thanksgiving%20Truth.htm