Canadian Thanksgiving

(Photo: Canadian troops attend a Thanksgiving service

in the bombed-out Cambrai Cathedral, in France,

October 1918)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Canada formally celebrates Thanksgiving

            on the second Monday of October.

Long before Europeans arrived in North America,

            Native Americans throughout the Americas

                        had organized harvest festivals

                                    and other celebrations of thanks.

Canadian Thanksgiving goes back to Martin Frobisher,

            the English explorer who searched

                        for a “Northern Passage”

                                    from Europe to China.

Frobisher's Thanksgiving was for homecoming

            rather than harvest.

In 1578 he arrived safely back in Newfoundland

            after a voyage of exploration,

                        and there he formally gave thanks

                                    and celebrated his crew’s survival

                                                of a long journey.

This feast was one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations

            by Europeans in North America,

                        predating the Pilgrims’ 1621 celebration.

Ten years after Frobisher's return, England gave thanks

            for deliverance from the Spanish Armada.

In her last speech to Parliament Queen Elizabeth I said,

            "We perceive your coming is to offer thanks ..."

                        and returned those thanks to her subjects.

It was in this spirit of thanksgiving –

            for being alive, protected, and appreciated –

                        that English language and culture flourished.

England was very different then –

            it was known as Merrie Englande:

                        its grown men laughed, cried,

                                    danced and loved exuberantly –

                                                like their Sovereign.

This was the context of Frobisher's 1578 Thanksgiving

            in Newfoundland. 

More HERE and HERE.

Today and every day we thank God for His protection,

            His provision, His blessing and grace.