Thanksgiving is a major holiday in North America.
One usually celebrates it at home by eating turkey and the various trimmings that might be had with turkey.
But the similarities between the holiday in Canada and the United States end there.
They are very distinct occasions with very different meanings in the two countries.
Thanksgiving in Canada
In Canada Thanksgiving occurs on the second Monday of October.
It did not always fall then but was something of a happenstance holiday.
Beginning in 1879 Thanksgiving was celebrated annually but its exact date was announced each year.
It is celebrated throughout Canada as statutory holiday except in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.
Thanksgiving in United States
In America Thanksgiving is rooted in history.
The first Thanksgiving reputedly took place in 1621 on the site of the Plymouth Plantation.
Venison, fowl, lobster, fish, clams, berries, pumpkin and squash comprised that first feast.
There is no mention of turkey.
Thanksgiving was not a fixed celebration for the succeeding two hundred years.
In 1941 President Roosevelt had Thanksgiving passed into law as the fourth Thursday of November.
Thanksgiving is the start of the Christmas season.
So Canadian and American Thanksgiving are very different holidays on the same continent.
Both are supposedly about thankfulness the latter has become a national holiday with strong nationalistic overtones.
