Being Thankful

[Kalstolyn]

* In 1578, Martin Frobisher returned safely to Newfoundland after travelling into the Arctic sea in search of a Northwest passage. This marked the first Thanksgiving celebration in Canada. In 1604, a group of French settlers travelling with Samuel Champlain celebrated a day of thanksgiving for having made it safely across the Atlantic to their new home in Canada.

* Another day of thanksgiving was celebrated at the end of the Seven Years' War, when Britain gained control over "New France" aka Canada.

* After the American Revolution, hordes of Loyalists came streaming into Canada, the nearest colony remaining loyal to the crown, and brought with them many of the traditions of the American version of Thanksgiving with the pilgrims and all that.

* The first Thanksgiving Day celebrated after Canada became Canada was in 1872, marking the Prince of Wales' recovery from a serious illness.

* Starting in 1879, Thanksgiving was celebrated in Canada every year, but the date moved all over the calendar, and the theme also changed.

* By the end of World War I, Thanksgiving had settled to the Monday of the week containing November 11; That date also became Armistice Day. In 1931, people decided that was too confusing and moved both holidays

* In 1957, the current date for Thanksgiving was formalized by Canadian Parliament as "A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed […] to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October."

tl;dr? Tomorrow is officially Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Loads of people celebrate today (Sunday) and take tomorrow off to recover from the turkey coma.

Ever since 1941, Thanksgiving has been celebrated like six weeks from now in the USA. They apparently get like a four-day weekend which includes some amazing consumerism via "Black Friday" sales.

Discussion? OKAY!
~ Things for which you are thankful. (Me, I am thankful for having survived another year without open heart surgery!)
~ How funny it is that two countries celebrate the same kind of occasion for completely different historical reasons.
~Does YOUR country celebrate a day of thanksgiving somehow? I know it is largely a Canada and USA thing, but I'm interested to hear about other places.
~ TURKEY COMA
~ blah blah blah trivial blah blah shut up, Kals.
~ Your favourite things to devour at a Thanksgiving feast!
~ Football!
~ YOUR MOM
~ paratrooper, the 1980s computer game.  

[Taeryyn]

Happy Thanksgiving, guyz. ^^

I am doing a veggie Thanksgiving with Josh this year. (Although we're having turkey and whatnot at work tomorrow...but sssshhhh, we won't tell him that.) Squash, turnip, potatoes, corn, maple carrots, stuffed peppers, stuffing, and fresh rolls. =w= And I bought pumpkin pie for dessert.

I am thankful that I still have a job, that I have a lovely apartment, that I have my health, and that I have such wonderful friends and family.  

[Roland Karloseth]

"I've been burned so bad...

Things I'm thankful for?

-I have a job. Not only is it a source of income, but it's somewhere to go so I can escape my crazy family. Part of me hopes I have to work on Thanksgiving day. Not looking forward to Black Friday though.

-I have an amazing girlfriend I can talk to about anything.

-I have awesome friends that I can just sit around and have fun with on the computer.

...but I still play with fire!"

 

[Thaliat Everwood]

I get the American Thanksgiving. I'm not much on traditions I didn't start, so I just look at it as a day off work expressly made for food. I love having yet another excuse to devour a turkey leg!

I see my family ever day, and extended family is too far off to be visiting, so that isn't really anything different. It's good to have them around, of course, just not extra special. So thankful, yes, excited...no.

I guess I'm glad to have a job...no, wait, I hate my current job and am quitting as soon as I am ready to move. So I'm thankful to be ditching that job...our patients are really getting on my nerves as of late. I'm thankful to be moving in with my boyfriend. And I'm thankful his cancer looks like it will be defeated with a little more chemo. That's a biggie.  

[Kalstolyn]

My family is not really celebrating Thanksgiving this year. My brother and his wife are off visiting her dying grandfather, my parents are busy, and my other brother lives in the next province. Tomorrow, Dad goes back to work and my mom and I are going to go walking in the river valley together. There will be no turkey, no pie, no dressing (my favourite! T-T) no cranberry sauce (ick!) and best of all, NO DISHES TO WASH! I am sitting here in my house by myself with no pants on, about to devour a pizza sub and a pumpkin muffin. I am thankful that I have a place to live (if Mike weren't such a nice guy, I would totally have been homeless for the past two years or so) and food to eat, and clean, safe water to drink, especially since the majority of people in the world do not have all of these things. I am thankful for a family that loves me and sticks together no matter what. I am thankful for so so many things in my daily life. and it would be waaaay too sappy to list them here.

ALSO: 01001001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 01110100 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01100001 00100000 01000010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 01110011 01100111 01101001 01110110 01101001 01101110 01100111 00101100 00100000 01100111 01110101 01111001 01110011 00100001 00100000 00110001 00110000 00101111 00110001 00110000 00101111 00110001 00110000 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 00110001 00110000 00101111 00110001 00110001 00101111 00110001 00110000 00100001 00100000 01001000 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100001 01110111 01100101 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00111111  

[Kerrigan_dragon]

I swear by my pretty floral bonnet...

I'm thankful for many things. smile

I'm thankful that I can go to school, and don't have to get a student loan for my first year. And I'm thankful that I'll probably be able to qualify for a student loan next year.

I'm thankful that I have amazing friends and a wonderful family.

I'm thankful for my wonderful boyfriend. smile

I'm thankful that I have shelter, water, food, and electricity.

I'm thankful for the platypus, for pandas, for pumpkin pie, Chinese food, waterfalls, diversity, airplanes, history, being able to walk, glasses, laughter, music, different cultures, the universe, video games, kindness, anti-malarial drugs, evolution, science, religions, the smell of rain, the warm feeling of drinking hot chocolate on a cold day, hugs, the approving smile my father gives me sometimes when I do something he's proud of, pretty dice, this song and everything in it, and life itself. smile

...I will end you.

 

[Kalstolyn]

I am also thankful for the fact that KERRIES'S SIGNATURE MADE ME LOSE THE GAME!  

[Jafthasleftthebuilding]

I'm thankful for the days I'm not poisoned by food. I think I really will need to microwave more. =_=

So far, every Monday for the past two weeks = stomach issues.

Turkey + ketchup = delicious.  

[Ogyshi]

This year, I had my eyes opened about many of the harsh facts surrounding Thanksgiving Day in my province. I live in Nova Scotia, where the capital of Acadia once was, when Acadia used to actually be here (before the English took over and banished all the Acadians and celebrated one of Halifax's first Thanksgiving Days.) I find Thanksgiving Day kind of dirty, like most holidays though really. I don't celebrate it. At least, not in the "let's show how much more fortunate we are than other people by having a big elaborate feast" way.
What's really sort of upsetting is that the exile on the Acadians is still in effect. Not actively enforced, but the law is still there. Actually, a few years ago the Queen was asked if she would like to repeal it, and she said no. God save the Queen, eh?  

[Kalstolyn]

Ah, but without the banishing of the Acadians, we wouldn't have "Un Canadien Errant" and Louisiana wouldn't have that rich Cajun culture.