Giving Thanks

When you’re a Canadian expat living in the United States, you get to celebrate Thanksgiving twice.

Canada celebrates on the second Monday in October. In their northern climate, Canadian crops are harvested much earlier in the fall because winter arrives sooner. The Great North’s Thanksgiving roots trace back to 1578 when explorer Martin Frobisher arrived safely on the shores of Newfoundland while looking for the Northwest Passage. It was declared a National Holiday.

In the United States Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. In the warmer southern climate, the harvest finishes later in the season. To lengthen the holiday shopping season before Christmas, President Franklin D. Roosevelt set this date in 1939.

But the 1621 roots of the American holiday go back to a harvest feast shared by Pilgrims and Wampanoag Native Americans. It was a successful supper, and after washing dishes the women all headed out to Macy’s for Black Friday shopping.