Thanksgiving In Canada: In Canada, Thanksgiving Day is observed on the second Monday in October (since the Canadian Parliament Proclamation in 1957), as an annual holiday, when the Canadians offer thanks to the Almighty at the end of the harvest season.
The history of Thanksgiving in Canada can be traced back to 1578 when Martin Frobisher from England set out on a voyage in search of the Northwest Passage, with the intention to start a small settlement in the Frobisher Bay area of Baffin Island in the present Canadian Territory of Nunavut. His fleet of 15 ships were well stocked with men, materials and provisions for this purpose. However, the loss of one of his ships through contact with ice along with much of the building material prevented him from doing so. The expedition was plagued by ice and freak storms which at times had scattered the fleet. Frobisher returned to England in the fall of the year. Years later, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, in 1604 onwards also held huge feasts of thanks. After the Seven Years' War ended in 1763 handing over of New France to the British, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving days were observed beginning in 1799 but did not occur every year. After the American Revolution, American refugees who remained loyal to Great Britain moved from the newly independent United States and came to Canada. They brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada.
Lower Canada and Upper Canada observed Thanksgiving on different dates. The first Thanksgiving Day after Canadian Confederation was observed as a civic holiday on April 5, 1872 to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) from a serious illness.
Starting in 1879 Thanksgiving Day was observed every year, but the date was initially a Thursday in November. The date of celebration changed several times until, in 1957, it was officially declared to be the second Monday in October. The theme of the Thanksgiving holiday also changed each year to reflect an important event to be thankful for. In its early years it was for an abundant harvest and occasionally for a special anniversary.
As a liturgical festival, Thanksgiving corresponds to the English and continental European Harvest festival, with churches decorated with cornucopias, pumpkins, corn, wheat sheaves, and other harvest bounty, English and European harvest hymns sung on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, and scriptural selections drawn from biblical stories relating to the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot. While the actual Thanksgiving holiday is on a Monday, Canadians might eat their Thanksgiving meal on any day of the three- day weekend, though Sunday is the most common.
Thanksgiving Prayer
Happy Thanksgiving Wishes (22nd November 2012)