Saturday, October 6, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!


I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our 2B families and visitors to our blog a very Happy  Thanksgiving!  Here is a little bit of the history of Canadian Thanksgiving, taken from Kidsworld.com...

Canadian Thanksgiving


Turkeys probaby are not as thankful for Thanksgiving as we are.
Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving day in Canada celebrates the successful harvest season.
Harvest Season

How It Began

The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving are more closely connected to the traditions of Europe than of the United States. Long before Europeans settled in North America, festivals of thanks and celebrations of harvest took place in Europe in the month of October. 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!

Official Holiday

For a few hundred years, Thanksgiving was celebrated in either late October or early November, before it was declared a national holiday in 1879. It was then, that November 6th was set aside as the official Thanksgiving holiday. But then on January 31, 1957, Canadian Parliament announced that on the second Monday in October, Thanksgiving would be "a day of general thanksgiving to almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed." Thanksgiving was moved to the second Monday in October because after the World WarsRemembrance Day (November 11th) and Thanksgiving kept falling in the same week.

The 49th Parallel

Another reason for Canadian Thanksgiving arriving earlier than its American counterpart is that Canada is geographically further north than the United States, causing the Canadian harvest season to arrive earlier than the American harvest season. And since Thanksgiving for Canadians is more about giving thanks for theharvest season than the arrival of pilgrims, it makes sense to celebrate the holiday in October. So what are the differences between Canadian and American Thanksgiving, other than the date? Not much! Both Canadians and Americans celebrate Thanksgiving with parades, family gatherings, pumpkin pie and a whole lot ofturkey!



Read more: Canadian Thanksgiving | History | Tradition | Harvest Festival | Thanksgiving Day | Holiday http://www.kidzworld.com/article/2614-canadian-thanksgiving#ixzz28W5qYWD1

3 comments:

  1. Wow, thanks for sharing about the history behind your thanksgiving holiday! Glad to know more about it!

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  2. We enjoyed our Thanksgiving weekend and hope you did too! We like how interactive your blog is. Your links are good. We did a Turkey Trot with the rest of our school last Friday. Does your school do a Turkey Trot too?

    Mrs Sarchet's Class
    Sullivan Elem
    Surrey, BC

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  3. No we don't do a turkey trot, but we'd sure like to hear about what that is!

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