This upcoming weekend is the Traditional Canadian Thanksgiving. I am hosting a feast for 16 members of my family..... and what a magnificent feast and fun get-together it shall be!
On the menu: 22 pound Turkey, home made cranberry sauce,bread stuffing in crock pots,mashed potatoes, whipped squash, velvety gravy, cabbage salad, dinner rolls,AND home made apple,grape, and pumpkin pie, coffee, tea for dessert! The wine will be flowing freely, provided by my 90-year-old father!
My place is all decorated; outside and inside. I just love decorating for a special dinner at my house!
Cheers and have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving Facts
In Canada, Thanksgiving is a three-day weekend (although some provinces observe a four day weekend, Friday–Monday). Traditional Thanksgiving meals prominently feature turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes, though Canada's multicultural heritage has seen many families infuse this traditional meal with elements of their traditional ethnic foods.
As a liturgical festival, the Canadian Thanksgiving corresponds to the European harvest festival, during which churches are adorned with cornucopias, pumpkins, corn, wheat sheaves and other harvest bounty. English and other European harvest hymns are customarily sung on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, along with scriptural lections derived from biblical stories relating to the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot.
While the actual Thanksgiving holiday occurs on a Monday, Canadian families might eat their Thanksgiving meal on any day of the three day weekend. The holiday can also be a time for weekend getaways for couples to observe the autumn leaves, spend one last weekend at their summer homes, or participate in various outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing and hunting.
History of Thanksgiving in Canada
The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been futilely attempting to find a northern passage to the Orient. He did, however, establish a settlement in Canada. In the year 1578, Frobisher held a formal ceremony in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This event is widely considered to be the first Canadian Thanksgiving, and the first official Thanksgiving to occur in North America. More settlers arrived and continued the ceremonial tradition initiated by Frobisher, who was eventually knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him — Frobisher Bay now known as Iqualuit.
It should be noted that the 1578 ceremony was not the first Thanksgiving as defined by First Nations tradition. Long before the time of Martin Frobisher, it was traditional in many First Nations cultures to offer an official giving of thanks during autumnal gatherings. In Haudenasonee culture, Thanksgiving is a prayer recited to honor "the three sisters" (i.e., beans, corn and squash) during the fall harvest.
