Every year, on the fourth Thursday in November, tens of million Americans celebrate their Thanksgiving. Like migratory birds many travel near and afar to be with loved ones; or those they can tolerate for short periods of time. In 2024, according to the American Automobile Association, across the Thanksgiving four-day weekend, nearly 80 million Americans travelled by air, rail and highways.
Packed into the family car, clogged roads and adverse weather can turn a two-hour journey into an all-day nightmare with the kids in the back calling out every five minutes, “Are we there yet?” or “I have to go pee!”
Some chose to be packed into a pressurised tube at 34,000 feet, squeezed between two men the size of The Rock and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Directly behind is a child who enjoys kicking the back of your seat. A somewhat different experience to those Emirate airline commercials.
World’s longest boundary separates more than countries
As the November event approaches, advertisements might lead some throughout the world, along with many Americans, to believe Thanksgiving is exclusively American. It’s also not surprising that few are aware that Canada also has a Thanksgiving Day, and other nations hold some form of Thanksgiving or harvest festival. Yet, the two big Thanksgiving celebrations belong to the US and Canada.
Now, you would be forgiven to think two countries that share a 5,525-mile (8,891 km) border – the longest in the world by total length – would share Thanksgiving histories, traditions and customs. That would be far from the truth. The only thing Canada and the US have in common is the name –Thanksgiving.
Myths verses documented deliverance
In school, I was erroneously taught that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims, who came ashore at Massachusetts and established the Plymouth Colony in 1620. They gave thanks for surviving a perilous journey across the Atlantic on the Mayflower and shared their bounty with friendly indigenous natives. Many first nations people argue the feel good story of Indigenous natives celebrating together with the colonists, as depicted in Jean Louis Gerome Ferris’s painting, is a myth. The true story may be much darker.
In fact, the first Thanksgiving in North America was held in what is now Nunavut 1578, by Sir Martin Frobisher and his crew. Admiral Sir Richard Collinson’s book, The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher, notes that the celebration was documented in the ship’s logs. The ship’s Chaplin, Robert Wolfall, wrote that he “made unto them a godly sermon, exhorting them especially to be thankful to God for theyr [sic] strange and miraculous deliverance in those so dangerous places.”
Also, in 1606, nearly 15 years before the American Thanksgiving in Massachusetts, Samuel de Champlain instituted a feast called the Ordre de Bon Temps (Order of Good Cheer). Champlain, the father of New France, endeavoured to establish good relations with the many Indigenous people of New France. To this end, documents passed down from early New France settlers which recorded that local Mi’kmaq families were also invited to the feast.
Joint resolutions and royal proclamations
On 6 October 1941, both houses of the United States Congress passed a joint resolution establishing Thanksgiving as a nation-wide holiday on the fourth Thursday in November. On 26 December 1941, President Franklin D Roosevelt signed the bill, for the first time making the date of Thanksgiving a matter of federal law in all 48 states; Alaska and Hawaii were not admitted into the union until 1959.
It wasn’t until 31 January 1957, that the Governor General of Canada, Vincent Massey, issued a proclamation stating: “A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed – to be observed on the second Monday in October.” Thus it became a federal statutory holiday across ‘most’ of Canada and an optional holiday in the Maritime provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
Parades, family, football and ‘two-fours’
Thanksgiving in the United States is one of the biggest holidays of the year. It is celebrated with football matches, a lot of flag waving, fly-bys over football stadiums by the US Navy’s Blue Angels or Air Force Thunderbirds, massive feasts, large parades with the Macy’s Parade being most well-known.
By contrast, Canada’s approach to Thanksgiving is a bit more laid back, a relaxing ‘two-four’ long weekend, which is a three-day holiday with 24 bottles of Canadian beer. While some families celebrate with a big dinner, it’s just not that important for others. A nice quiet meal with local loved ones is more important. Parades are smaller and at a local level. The Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest parade is probably Canada’s only large Thanksgiving Day parade. In Quebec, Thanksgiving is called “Action de Grâce”, but many Quebecers don’t celebrate at all.
Americans and Canadians both enjoy football on their respective Thanksgiving Day. However, the two games, while having the same end objective are notably different in many ways. The Canadian Football League holds a nationally televised doubleheader, while the American National Football League televises three. The NFL games seem like an all-day spectacle with long pre-game and half-time shows, loud voices and testosterone flowing like the Mississippi River.
A different kind of feast
Since the day is observed on a Monday, the day after Thanksgiving, Canadians go back to work. The day after will bear witness to Americans hovering outside electronic or clothing big box stores. Many have staked a claim close to the front door well before the official opening time, some well before sunrise. ‘Black Friday’ is aptly named. Having lived in the US and in Canada near a border state, the local evening news always broadcast footage of people crashing through the main entrance like vultures swooping down on a carrion, fighting over a garment or TV, and the occasional person being shot.
Where Thanksgiving was first celebrated
Whether it be the Canadian or the America version of the first Thanksgiving, there is a central player in both. The Indigenous peoples have lived throughout the Americas for thousands of years, coming across the Bering Strait land bridge that eons ago linked Asia and North America. Long before being ‘discovered’ by Europeans, they formed complex social, political, family and cultural systems. The celebration of the harvest bounty (which is what Thanksgiving is supposed to represent) finds its origins in their history well before it was adopted by ours.
This Friday, have a happy Thanksgiving America and circle 12 October 2026 on your calendar to send Thanksgiving wishes to a Canadian. Enjoy the family, food and football, and when shopping, leave the ‘Glock’ locked up at home.
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