Technolandy

Day 28 (of 2024/25) on Canadian Thanksgiving

• The first Thanksgiving after Confederation was observed on 5 April 1872. A national civic holiday rather than a religious one, it was held to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) from an illness. Thanksgiving was first observed as an annual event in Canada on 6 November 1879, even though the seasonal feast was celebrated on this continent long before colonizers arrived.

• Prior to 1957, Canada celebrated Thanksgiving on the third Monday of October. It officially moved to the second Monday of October via an announcement on January 31, 1957 by the Governor General of Canada.

• The United States celebrates their Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November and ours is in October as it gets colder earlier and therefore, our harvest season is earlier.

• It was originally celebrated as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year.

• Like many ‘holidays’; Thanksgiving is not a ‘day off’ everywhere in Canada (I still think it’s interesting that Ontario does not take a day for either Truth & Reconciliation nor Remembrance Day) – Thanksgiving is now a statatory holiday with the exception of the Atlantic provinces of Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

• Turkey consumption can cause tiredness due to its tryptophan,  a naturally occurring amino acid used by the human body to create serotonin, which promotes slow-wave sleep.

• Of all the options for food, why is Turkey synonymous with Thanksgiving? According to a Slate article: “They were fresh, affordable, and big enough to feed a crowd.” 

• Cranberries are a big part of Thanksgiving meals, and we have the Algonquin natives to thank for it. They were the first to harvest wild cranberries and use them for food.

• Turkey and cranberry sauce weren’t on the original Thanksgiving table, but you might be surprised to learn pumpkin pie was. There are pumpkin pie recipes that date back to the 1650s.

And Thanksgiving was a Canadian thing before the United States adopted the similar celebration. 

But… as systemic discrimination hides in plain sight, we ought to be aware of:

• Implicit bias that everyone can afford a ‘feast’ and that the ‘gathering of a family’ is always a positive
• The adoption of the holiday was civic, not religious, but at the time of origination was very much done with a colonial mindset with ‘one best way to gather and celebrate’ and that definitely has a negative tone cast on it…
• Even though it was established as a civic holiday, I know even in our non-religious household it was pretty common by the oldest generation that it was one of the meals of the year that would start with a prayer…
• While many look at Thanksgiving as a time when families gather – especially kids returning home from university for a non-cafeteria meal… we need to be mindful that this gathering was not an expectation with residential schools – so the highlighting of gathering further fuels the generations that were shown that this holiday was not for them…
• Indigenous Educator Biindigegizhig Deleary said “It is very much a dark history, very much a dark story about how Indigenous people saved those early colonialists from starvation, and then the following year, those same colonialists, burning and murdering those very Indigenous people on the eastern shores of of Turtle Island, North America.

So we can be thankful for where we are and what the future has in store for us, but we need to be mindful that this is the start of some complex holidays when we unpack that/how/why they’re not universally adored…

It’s always been a positive for me and my memories of family – except for having to eat some wheat… that didn’t go down right… any traditions you have? Marshmallow sweet potatoes? Turducken?