Every 2nd Monday of October, it’s Thanksgiving Day here in Canada. At the same day, it’s also Columbus Day in the U.S. Take note that Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. is celebrated every 2nd to the last Thursday of November.
Columbus Day is observing the event when a European gent/explorer named Christopher Columbus who discovered the American continent. I think though that the Americans observe this more nowadays as another long weekend meant to be enjoyed further.
Thanksgiving Day in Canada has some similarities like the American Thanksgiving Day in terms of the cuisine…turkey,pumpkin pie,cranberry pie,stuffing,etc. and serves as a special occasion for family and friends to gather together to share in a hearty feast as well as to catch up with one another.
The differences lie obviously aside from the dates, in terms of its purpose. Canadians celebrate it to give thanks for a good harvest. This is reflected in the cuisine being served as products of that great harvest.The Americans celebrate it to reflect on their history of being Pilgrims who came to the Americas being considered the New World to start a new life away from England.They came by way of that now famous ship called the Mayflower.They also came during the time of the great harvest season which again shows why there’s a similarity of cuisine being served on both those Thanksgiving Days.
In current times, the American Thanksgiving has added more jazz and pizazz to this auspicious day. There’s a Thanksgiving parade,the most famous one held in front of the Macy’s Department Store in New York City(called Macy’sThanksgiving Day Parade) and after being turkeyed out, the next day Friday, they’ll troop very early the next morning to avail of big sales in the stores thus heralding the start of the Christmas shopping season. They call this as Black Friday when the stores expect to be “in the black” meaning that their sales sheets would produce great year-end profits from until the end of the calendar year.
Whatever and however we celebrate it, we all must count and be thankful for our life’s blessings and remain hopeful for our future.
Happy Thanksgiving,everyone!
Josie
josiesvoice 