Canadian Thanksgiving - How It Began

The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving are more closely connected to the
traditions of Europe than of the United States. Long before Europeans
settled in North America, festivals of thanks and celebrations
<http://www.kidzworld.com/article/1907-the-wonderful-world-of-wicca> of
harvest took place in Europe in the month of October. The very first
Thanksgiving celebration in North America took place in Canada when Martin
Frobisher, an explorer from England,
<http://www.kidzworld.com/article/914-world-rugby> arrived in Newfoundland
in 1578. He wanted to give thanks for his safe arrival to
<http://www.kidzworld.com/article/2614-canadian-thanksgiving#> the New
World. That means the first Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated 43 years
before the pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts!
<http://www.kidzworld.com/article/2536-the-salem-witch-trials-of-1692>



Canadian Thanksgiving - Official Holiday

For a few hundred years, Thanksgiving was celebrated in either late October
or early November, before it was declared a national holiday in 1879. It was
then, that November 6th was set aside as the official Thanksgiving holiday.
But then on January 31, 1957, Canadian Parliament announced that on the
second Monday in October, Thanksgiving would be "a day of general
thanksgiving to almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has
been blessed." Thanksgiving was moved to the second Monday in October
because after the World
<http://www.kidzworld.com/article/883-pearl-harbor-movie-review> Wars,
Remembrance Day (November
<http://www.kidzworld.com/article/1507-veterans-remembrance-day> 11th) and
Thanksgiving kept falling in the same week.
<http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=5057056/grpspId=1705370304/msgId
=2684/stime=1191606361/nc1=4767086/nc2=3858795/nc3=3848618>



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