Lady Pegasus' Thanksgiving Page

HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING

CANADIAN THANKSGIVING

When people from Europe arrived in North America, the farmers brought traditions from their own countries, and one of them was to give thanks for their good fortune and abundance of food, so they held a celebration at Harvest time.

The first North American Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1578 when the English Navigator, Martin Frobisher, held a formal ceremony in Newfoundland. He did this to give thanks for surviving the long sea journey, and other settlers arrived in Newfoundland, and the tradition was continued by them.

At the time of the American Revolution, Americans who remained loyal to the Government in England, moved to Canada and in this way Thanksgiving celebrations spread throughout Canada.

In the 1600's, the explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived with French settlers, and they formed the "Order of Good Cheer" and held huge feasts of Thanksgiving.

In 1879, Parliament declared November 6th a national holiday of Thanksgiving. Over the years this date changed, and on January 31, 1957, Parliament declared the second Monday in October of each year to be "A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed".

AMERICAN THANKSGIVING

The first Thanksgiving Days in New England were harvest festivals, or days for thanking God for bountiful crops. That is why the holiday takes place late in the fall, after the crops have been gathered. For thousands of years, people around the world have held harvest festivals.
In North America we enjoy feasts, centered around turkey dinners and pumpkin pie, and the gathering together of family in joyful celebration.
But of course, Thanksgiving is also a time for religious contemplations, special church services, and prayer.
The first Thanksgiving observance in America, on Dec. 4, 1619, was entirely religious and did not involve feasting.
A small group of English settlers who came to Virginia decided to mark the day of their arrival with a yearly day of thanksgiving to God.
Religious groups, called Pilgrims, came to the New World to create communities where they could worship in their own way. These were Quakers and Roman Catholics from England, Huguenots from France, Moravians from Germany, and Jews from throughout Europe. The Mayflower was the ship that carried the first Pilgrims to America, in 1620.
In Plymouth, 1621, about a year after colonists had settled in New England, a harvest festival was declared by the governor, to give thanks to God.
The Indians were originally helpful to the colonists, by teaching them how to plant corn and beans, so trade developed between the two groups and Indians were invited to join in the 3 day feasting. There was a good corn harvest, but poorer crops of peas, wheat, and barley.

The cooking was done over outdoor fires, and local Indians brought venison to add to the bounty. I suppose this was what you might call an early version of the "pot-luck" dinner. I think pumpkins would have been available to the settlers, but can't imagine how pies could be cooked over open flame, so I suspect the dessert might have included apple dishes.
In 1789, President George Washington issued a general proclamation naming November 26 a day of national thanksgiving, and the Protestant Church inaugurated the first Thursday in November as a regular yearly day for giving thanks. Even so, different States picked different times to celebrate, and the religious celebrations were not yet incorporated with the feast days.

Finally, President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday, proclaiming it in 1863 to be the last Thursday in November. Sarah Josepha Hale was credited with persuading President Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. In 1941 Congress ruled that it would be observed as a legal federal holiday.

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HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING

CANADIAN THANKSGIVING

AMERICAN THANKSGIVING