In this article I take a brief look at the origins of Thanksgiving and its celebration here in Canada, given that we will all be celebrating on October 14th.
We all learned as children about the American Thanksgiving myth of the first US Thanksgiving but what of the early Canadian celebrations.
It is said that the first annual Canadian Thanksgiving was celebrated on 6 November 1879. Sir Martin Frobisher and his crew are credited as the first Europeans to have celebrated a Thanksgiving ceremony in North America, close to Nunavut in 1578. They ate a meal of salt beef, biscuits and mushy peas to celebrate their safe arrival. They celebrated Communion and expressed their thanks for their good fortune.
From documents passed down from the early inhabitants of New France we know that Samuel de Champlain celebrated in 1606, attempting to prevent a re-occurrence of the scurvy epidemic that had decimated the settlement in the winter of 1604–05, he instituted a series of rotating feasts called the ‘Ordre de Bon Temps (“Order of Good Cheer”), local Mi’kmaq families also were invited. The first of these feasts was held on the 14th of November consisting of “a feast, a discharge of musketry, and as much noise as could be made by some fifty men, joined by a few Indians, whose families served as spectators.”
This celebration was reported to have featured North American turkey, squash and pumpkin. By 1750 it had been introduced to Acadia and by the 1870’s it would spread across Canada.
I would point out that this was nearly 17 years before what is touted as the first ‘American Thanksgiving’ involving the Pilgrims’ celebration of their first harvest in Massachusetts in 1621.
As is the case with a lot of our history, the Indigenous People’s part in the development of distinctive Canadian values has been under recorded in our history books. Our Indigenous peoples have a long history of celebrating the fall harvest that predates the arrival of European settlers to this soil.
The Indigenous peoples have been in Canada since time immemorial forming complex social, political, economic and cultural systems long before Europeans came to North America. I would venture to say that the celebration of the Fall bounty (which is what our Thanksgiving is supposed to represent) finds its origins in their history long before it was adopted by ours.
Historians tell us that the Indigenous peoples in North America have a long history of communal feasts in celebration of the fall harvest to ensure a good harvest and to facilitate their survival. My ancestors would bring a similar tradition of harvest celebrations with them when they arrived. These observances date back to early peasant societies.
The first ‘national’ observance of Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated in the Province of Canada in 1859 and was organized by the Protestant clergy who seemingly appropriated the American Thanksgiving, first observed in the states in 1777 and they established a national day of “public thanksgiving and prayer” in 1789.
Historian Peter Stevens notes that some citizens “objected to this government request, saying it blurred the distinction between church and state that was so important to many Canadians.”
The first Thanksgiving after Confederation was observed on 5 April 1872, a national civic holiday rather than a religious one.
Thanksgiving was first observed as an annual event in Canada on 6 November 1879. The date for observance and the ‘unifying theme’ (usually harvest related) was determined annually by our Parliament.
The holiday back then would be celebrated as late as the 6th of December and in some years would align with American Thanksgiving. The most popular date seemed to be the third Monday in October for weather considerations.
In 1957, Thanksgiving was officially proclaimed an annual holiday and pinned to the second Monday of October. It is an official statutory holiday in all provinces and territories except Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
Canadians have observed the Thanksgiving tradition no matter what was happening or where they found themselves. Canadian troops observed the holiday in the battlefields during Word Wars 1 and 2.
Today we observe the holiday more a day for getting together with family to give thanks for our general well-being and it is no longer restricted to harvest activities.
I always enjoyed Thanksgiving the best as a child as it reminded me how blessed I was even if we were poor. The ‘gathering of the clan’ made me warm inside and my grandma’s pies still bring a smile to my face.
No mater how or where you celebrate Thanksgiving this year, I hope that you have tons of things to be grateful for and that you flourish in a gathering of love and companionship.
Sources:
Thanksgiving in Canada by David Mills, Andrew McIntosh, Laura Neilson Bonikowsky – Article
Newmarket resident Richard MacLeod, the History Hound, has been a local historian for more than 40 years. He writes featured articles about our town’s history in partnership with Newmarket Today, conducts heritage lectures and walking tours of local interest, and leads local oral history interviews.
