Canadian Thanksgiving started in Newfoundland...
Oct 8th 2007, 3:44 pm
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2007
Location: St John's NL
Posts: 246
Canadian Thanksgiving started in Newfoundland...
Well I never knew -
Trying to explain to the InLaws why we celebrate earlier than the Americans and I saw this...
History and Origin of Canadian Thanksgiving
Trying to explain to the InLaws why we celebrate earlier than the Americans and I saw this...
History and Origin of Canadian Thanksgiving
In Canada Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. Unlike the American tradition of remembering Pilgrims and settling in the New World, Canadians give thanks for a successful harvest. The harvest season falls earlier in Canada compared to the United States due to the simple fact that Canada is further north.
The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. He did not succeed but he did establish a settlement in Northern America. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay.
