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paullam_gw

Canadian Thanksgiving

paullam
15 years ago

To all the Canadians on this forum, have a great Thanksgiving weekend.

Paul

Comments (8)

  • greenthumbz4mn
    15 years ago

    Paul and all our Canadian friends,
    Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I've often wondered how you all celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada. Do you have special foods determined by the Province you live in--or do you have a basic dish like the turkey that most Americans serve? Do you gather with families and jam your airways and highways with travelers? I do think it wonderful that you have it earlier in the fall so you don't have to battle the elements that we often do in the North. Is the exact date Oct. 10th, and is it the same every year? I must stop pumping you, but this seems like a perfect opportunity to discover how other countries celebrate similar holidays. :O) Mary

  • mctavish6
    15 years ago

    Mary, Thanksgiving is just about the same here as in the states. We have the same traditional dishes, turkey or ham, apple and pumpkin pies etc. In Canada it just seems more civilized. By that I mean having it early in the fall instead of a month before Christmas makes lots of sense. I grew up in the states and lived there until 1973 so I've experienced both. I'm not sure how the date is determined. Is it the second monday in Oct.? Anyone know? I know it's not the 10th every year because that is my wedding anniversary and Thankdgiving is not always on the day. This year Thanksgiving is on the 13, Monday. In the US having Thanksgiving on Thurs. with Friday not ususally a day off work was weird looking back. You'd have this big holiday and most people have to work the next day.

    Don't get me started on Boxing Day! Canada win's on the subject of holidays....McT

  • hostarhodo
    15 years ago

    Happy Thanksgiving to all Canadians. Thankyou to our forum friends.

    Mary, it is held the second Monday in October every year. Most have turkey with the works as the USA does, with family travelling from near and far. My family is Acadian therefore I grew up having Rappie Pie (a potato and meat dish) for holidays and turkey was second, most likely on Boxing Day. So it is according to your own traditions.

    This weekend is the big pumpkin weigh-off (today) always draws a crowd. Great fun, games for the kids and pumpkin
    carving, etc. (Beautiful day outdoors, I have to get out there.) Ours started years ago with a competition between
    towns with the same name as ours, US and Canadian. Many towns have their own weigh-in.

    Howard Dill started it all with his giant pumpkin seeds, he lived in Windsor, N.S. Passed away a few months ago. What joy, wonder and entertainment he has brought to the world. I am sure he will be on a lot of people's minds this weekend.

    Besides Thanksgiving, it is birthday time around here, I should be making my son's cake. My mom's was the 9th, my ex-husband's the 11th and my son's the 13th. (Born on Friday the 13th) and left handed. Thinks that is special.

    Hosta Forum, Hosta Forum. The front steps are gone,the old shed is gone,all plant material from around house is gone,machinery in the yard moving soil and rocks around. Making a trench for run off. Guy just gone home for the day. Stuff from the shed is outdoors, waiting for place to put new shed when it arrives. Also made new planting beds.
    My grandaughter said, Nanny look at all the dirt we have to plant in. (4 years old, probably will be a true gardener).

    3 day weekend, 1 1/2 months to retirement. Winter on the way. Lots to do. Got 4 bags of leaves yesterday. Must bum some more.

    Have a good one. Work hard but safely. (Not like me awhile back, I told myself that I must move the rake and promptly tripped on it, no damage).

    Betty

  • paullam
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Mary,

    Our Thanksgiving is the second weekend of October and ours is, in many ways, a way of giving thanks for the harvest. We are gathering as a family on Monday, this year for the first time in nearly 40 years, it will be celebrated at the home of our youngest son and his family as we will all be closer to the hospital were my mother in law at 96 was admitted a while back. Our dinner compares to yours with turkey, pumpkin, apple pie and whatever else happens. Our family is doing a form of pot luck this year and we truly are giving thanks for being able to be together as a family......What I like about your thanksgiving, that it is like the advent of the Christmas Season.

    Paul

  • Janice
    15 years ago

    What a neat thread--and I want to join in the greeting "HAPPY THANKSGIVING"color=orange>size> to all our
    Canadian friends, and ask you hosta-'givers of thanks' to also remember to pray for our dear friend, Papou and
    Therese and all their families!!

    I love when our Thanksgiving lands, as it seems to be just the right way to enter the Christmas season, giving thanks to
    the One who has made it all possible, and truly being 'The color>Reasoncolor> for the Season'!color>size>color>

    Myrle--I'd love to be with you!!!{{gwi:894713}}

  • hostasformez4
    15 years ago

    My only sister and her hubby are visiting your country as I type this. They are doing 3 weeks with all of you, doing the two lane roads and getting off the beaten path so to speak. They started in Illinois and ended up in Prince Edward Island before starting back. I talked to her yesterday and she mentioned your Thanksgiving celebration for today.

    She's taking lots of pictures and said the fall color was at it's peak everwhere they have gone.

    It's been years since I've been to Canada. I've been there twice, once at 16 when I went with my oldest brother and his family and we camped many places while coming back from a visit to PA., then many years later with my sister on a two week treck ending up in Nova Scotia and taking the ferry back to the US from Yarmouth. My sister told me it doesn't run anymore. What a shame as they would have retraced her and my trip if it were still running.

    Happy Holiday to all of you.

    Connie

  • evermore_gw z 4/5 NB
    15 years ago

    Happy Thanksgiving to all, whether Canadians or Americans. This is a holiday we share, though not at the same time. DW and I are just back from turkey supper at a rural church, and the scenery along the way was spectacular with the fall leaves at their peak under a beautiful blue sky.

    We celebrated twice, since we did the big family turkey dinner at home yesterday. Lots of noise, but you don't mind it when they're all your own, three generations of us.

    Connie, you must follow your sister's example and come to the Maritimes at this time of year. PEI is lovely, but so too are Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (where I live). Your sister, by the way, is mistaken about the ferry from Yarmouth. It still runs, although it's the modern version, a high-speed "Cat." That's a hydrofoil (hope I got the terminology right).

    Thanks to Paul for starting this thread. The Hostagrowers family is one of the friendliest I know.

  • greenthumbz4mn
    15 years ago

    Thank you all for your information on how you celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada. We, in the US, are celebrating Columbus Day today (Oct. 12 really). Our Thanksgiving is also a day of thanks for the harvest which we share with our friends and families, and I think it began several years after the Pilgrims landed. I think it was Franklin Roosevelt's administration that set the date as the fourth Thurs. of Nov. (I'm really stretching my mind here, and I may be rightfully corrected for those presumed facts. :O) It sounds like we serve the same foods for the most part, and I'm getting hungry just thinking about them. My church also has the tradition of serving a full T dinner the Sunday before the actual day. And many churches hold special T services often on the eve before. Meanwhile, since it's still your special day, a great Thanksgiving to you all. Mary

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