Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
After over a hundred years of variety, Canadian Parliament finally set the date of Thanksgiving to the second Monday of October. The holiday had not been fixed due to the fact that it stems from the European liturgical harvest festival occurring by the end of the agricultural season, celebrating crops and other graces from the recent year. The Canadian family settles down to the Thanksgiving dinner on any day of the weekend. The feast consists mainly of dishes borrowed from the southern neighbors, the USA: stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, apple pie, cranberry sauce or sweet corn. Some foods, however, are more local, such as salmon, butter tarts or Nanaimo bars.
Aside from the harvest festival heritage, Canada grants its Thanksgiving to the third voyage of Martin Frobisher, who in 1578 attempted yet again to find the Northwest Passage. Although the trip was unsuccessful due to impossible weather conditions, the crew celebrated their survival through ice and storm. Feasts of thanks gained popularity as a result of French, British, and Native impact: the peoples of the Americas had celebrated the gifts of natural cycles long before the settlers came; the end of the European Seven Years’ War resulted in the Halifax community’s spontaneous holiday. The American cuisine influenced Canada when the British loyalists fled north from the USA after the Revolutionary War. Canadian Thanksgiving had not occurred regularly until 1879, and its date had not been unified between Lower and Upper Canada. Since 1850, the united Province had celebrated a mutual holiday; after the creation of Canadian Confederation, the first Thanksgiving took place on April 5, 1872. It was declared a national holiday in 1879 and finally started to be celebrated annually. The only problem was the date, which moved from a Thursday to a Monday in November, only to be moved to a second Monday of October in 1957.
The standard symbols of Thanksgiving are based on the harvest festivals. Seasonal vegetables are usually stuffed into a horn, which makes it a cornucopia, an allegory of abundance and richness. Another tradition connected to food is serving pecan nuts. Moreover, Canadians prepare American dishes in their own, special way. Pumpkin pie is more spicy, potatoes are mashed into a puree, not made into a casserole, and the bread is made of wheat, not corn. Thanksgiving does not only mean the feast. Many Canadians, aside from enjoying outdoor activities such as fishing, travel to their holiday homes for a quick fall vacation before the first snow appears. Canadian football fans can celebrate their holiday in front of a TV, because the Thanksgiving Day Classic features two simultaneous games.
Most of the country can enjoy a day free from work, because Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in all provinces apart from Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia. All public institutions are closed and the urban transport may have a changed timetable. The streets are quieter and slower. That is probably why the meaning of the holiday is growing, as Thanksgiving becomes the main opportunity to rest before Christmas.