If you're Canadian, this weekend you probably travelled home to be with friends and family to celebrate Thanksgiving. You're probably going to eat a giant turkey or ham, potatoes, squash, corn gravy, pumpkin pie and whatever else your mother makes for your annual Thanksgiving feast.
You'll probably all share what you're thankful for too. Common themes refer to family, friends and good health.
But let me ask you this: Why do Canadians even celebrate Thanksgiving? This weekend I've been asking a bunch of my friends, and they all basically have the same answer: "I don't actually know ... because we're so close to America?"
Thanksgiving is a big deal in America, because AMERICA! Why not celebrate how wonderful it is to be the largest country that oozes capitalism and chants of 'MERICA? Although the first reported "Thanksgiving" was held at Plymouth in the 1600's, which is much more likely why Americans are so adamant about celebrating every year.
For Canadians we celebrate thanks to the traditions of those wonderful Europeans that crossed the Atlantic Ocean and settled in North America. Or should I say Lower and Upper Canada?
One of the first "official" Thanksgivings in what is now present-day Canada was celebrated by Martin Frobisher for surviving the journey through northern waters in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage.
For many other European settlers, fall harvests happened in October or November, and they were thankful for the bountiful new land they had that gave them lots of delicious food, and the tradition stuck. While more settlers came over to North America, more celebrations occurred.
Today, some of the original traditions hold true, but for most Canadians, this weekend is just a good excuse to take Monday off and eat as much turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie as humanly possible.
To me, this seems a bit weird, but hey, it works.
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