Canuck Turkey Day

Canadian Thanksgiving is tomorrow (it's observed on the second Monday of October), but we're celebrating it today. The Canadian version of the holiday is very similar to the American one, with a few notable differences.

Canadians don't have a Pilgrim-and-Indian story like the Americans do, so they had to jump about and find something to officially pin the day on. What they came up with was to make thanksgiving a celebration of the fact that noted explorer Martin Frobisher had returned from one of his long voyages in search of the Northwest Passage safe and sound (the fact that he appears to have been largely unsuccessful in his attempt doesn't seem to make much of a difference).

Another difference is described in this quote from Wikipedia: "Thanksgiving is an annual Canadian holiday to give thanks at the close of the harvest season. Although some people thank God for this bounty, the holiday is mainly considered secular." I'm not sure exactly who or what the secular folks are giving thanks to on this day. Perhaps they're sitting around radiating warm fuzzy thankful feelings into the environment. (Of course, another Wikipedia entry labels American thanksgiving as a "secular" holiday as well, so go figure.)

It strikes me as odd that Canadians don't celebrate many holidays with the zeal of their American counterparts. To me, thanksgiving and independence day are linked with the founding of our country, and patriotism is the backbone of many such celebrations. Canadians have a completely different view, having arrived at national independence through a long, peaceful, and, at times, apologetic diplomatic process. Subsequently, holidays like Thanksgiving tend to pass without much hoopla or fanfare (except, of course, for the commercially bloated and greed-mutated version of Christmas that most of the world celebrates nowadays).

Our thanksgiving meal should consist of chicken, ham, meatballs, stuffing (the bread-based Yankee version), potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, home-made pickles, and... beets. (According to all things good, holy, and decent, our meal should include turkey, but two members of the family -- who shall remain nameless -- flatly refuse to come into contact with any form of flesh other than the white meat of a chicken. Moose meat, which was a traditional staple of Canadian pioneer diet, and which is also painfully delicious, would be completely out of the question.) We also have enough pie to feed Coxey's army.

Despite the fact that the true significance of the day is lost on the average Canadian, I intend to spend the day actually thanking my maker for the many blessings I have received this year -- and, especially, for one particular little blessing that is still on the way.