Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in Canada is a statutory public holiday observed on the second Monday of October. It provides an opportunity to gather with family and friends to give thanks for the autumn harvest and the blessings of the past year.

Long before European arrival, Indigenous nations across Turtle Island held seasonal ceremonies to give thanks for agricultural yields, successful hunts, and survival through the changing seasons. The earliest recorded European thanksgiving celebration in North America occurred in 1578, when English explorer Sir Martin Frobisher and his crew held a formal service of thanks upon landing safely in present-day Nunavut. In 1606, French explorer Samuel de Champlain established the Order of Good Cheer (L'Ordre de Bon Temps) at Port-Royal, organizing festive meals between French settlers and Mi'kmaq hosts to maintain morale during the winter.

After Confederation, the Parliament of Canada declared the nation's first national Thanksgiving on April 5, 1872, to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) from a serious illness. For many decades, the holiday was celebrated on various dates in late October or early November, often coinciding with Armistice Day. To avoid overlap with Remembrance Day and to reflect Canada's earlier northern harvest season, Parliament issued an official proclamation on January 31, 1957, fixing Thanksgiving permanently on the second Monday in October.

Canadian families typically gather over the long weekend for a feast featuring roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Regional culinary touches exist across the country, ranging from butter tarts in Ontario to Jiggs dinner in parts of Atlantic Canada. Outside the dining room, people use the three-day weekend for autumn hikes to enjoy the changing leaf colours, shutting down family cottages before winter, and watching the annual Thanksgiving Day Classic double-header games in the Canadian Football League (CFL).