Je vous remercie
Last weekend was Thanksgiving here in the Great, White North. Action de grâce in Quebec, although the French name lends it a dull, secular, holiday-for-the-sake-of-a-day-off feel. (That’s probably okay with everyone, since it is more or less an English-Christian holiday.) In any case, the weather gods were smiling over Montreal as real, honest Indian summer lasted straight through the long weekend, so no one was complaining.
Wait! Yes, my continental neighbo(u)rs, there is Canadian Thanksgiving, and no, it’s not the same day, or even the same month, as American Thanksgiving. Down south it’s all about the pilgrims and the Mayflower and having a jolly old time with those friendly natives who generously offered to donate their continent in exchange for small pox not much.
Up here, it’s, well, um…well, actually, nobody in Canada seems to know. I eat turkey and mashed potatoes and pie, because, really, who doesn’t want a tasty, hearty dinner at harvest time, but truth be told, other than my particular family’s tradition of doing Thanksgiving — one probably rooted in my grandparents’ American origins — I haven’t the foggiest what’s to celebrate, beyond, you know, being rich (globally speaking) and decadently well-fed once in awhile.
Turns out a little digging reveals that Giving Thanks in Canada quite possibly pre-dates the Hallmark-approved American Thanksgiving, since experts agree that Martin Frobisher’s feast in Newfoundland in 1578 was the original inspiration for the tradition. Moreover:
In the 1600s, Samuel de Champlain and the French Settlers who came with him established an “Order of Good Cheer.” This group would hold huge celebrations marking the harvests and other events, sharing their food with Native American neighbours.
(Since Quebecers no longer care much about Thanksgiving, Orders of Good Cheer here are nowadays only made when the Canadiens make the playoffs.)
Getting down to the meat of the matter though, Canadian Thanksgiving was first celebrated formally in 1872 when Edward VII, soon to be King of England and the obscenely grand British empire, recovered from a grave illness. Glory be! — and isn’t it strange that the French-Canadians didn’t take to this? In any case, the holiday hopped around the calendar a bit, before landing on the second Monday in October to celebrate, in the words of 1957’s Parliament, “a day a general Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.”
By late November, you see, when Americans give their traditional thanks, our harvest has been eaten, our leaves have long-since fallen off, and we’ve moved on to thanking Almighty God for insulation, road salt and fleece-lined, Thinsulate™ mittens.
Previously: Designing Democracy
Subsequently: Meow
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