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The first known thanksgiving feast or festival in North America was celebrated by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and the Teya people on 23 May 1541 in Texas' Palo Duro Canyon, to celebrate his expedition's discovery of food supplies. The next was apparently celebrated a quarter-century later on September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida. When Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landed, he and his men shared a feast with the aboriginal peoples. Later, the aboriginal people called themselves "apple-tangerines" (which may or may not indicate those fruits were on the menu at that "Thanksgiving"). Don Juan de Onate celebrated April 30,1598 today known as El Paso,Tx with the Manso Indians.
The first Anglophone thanksgiving was celebrated in 1578 in Newfoundland by Martin Frobisher and the other members of his Expedition to find the Northwest Passage. The next was celebrated in colonial Virginia on December 4, 1619 when 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish arrived from England and gave thanks to God. A year later, a group of Puritans, who were heading for Virginia, got blown off-course and landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, instead. In the autumn of 1621, they celebrated a three-day thanksgiving feast with the native Wampanoag people, without whom they would not have survived the winter of 1620. It is this Thanksgiving tradition that is ultimately the immediate ancestor to both American and Canadian Thanksgiving - having been transported to Canada by United Empire Loyalists after the American War for Independence.
Thanksgiving is traditionally celebrated with a large dinner shared among friends and family. In both Canada and the United States, it is an important family gathering, and people often travel long distances to be with relations for the celebration. The Thanksgiving holiday is often a "four-day weekend" in the United States, in which Americans are given the relevant Thursday and Friday off. Thanksgiving is usually celebrated almost entirely at home, unlike the Fourth of July or Christmas, which are associated with a variety of shared public experiences (fireworks, caroling, etc.). In Canada, it is a three-day weekend, as Thanksgiving is observed on the second Monday of October every year.
In New York City, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held annually every Thanksgiving Day in Midtown Manhattan. The parade features moving stands with specific themes, scenes from Broadway plays, large balloons of cartoon characters and TV personalities, and high school marching bands. It always ends with the image of Santa Claus passing the reviewing stand. Thanksgiving parades also occur in other cities such as Plymouth, Houston, Philadelphia (which claims the oldest parade), and Detroit (where it is the only major parade of the year). Because of the earlier date, Santa Claus parades in Canada do not fall on Thanksgiving; the only major parade on that day in Canada is the Oktoberfest parade in Kitchener-Waterloo.
The Christmas shopping season in the U.S. traditionally begins when Thanksgiving ends, on "Black Friday" (the day after Thanksgiving); this tradition has held forth since at least the 1930s. While the biggest day of shopping of the year in the U.S., as measured by customer traffic, is still the Friday after Thanksgiving (the biggest by sales volume is either the Saturday before Christmas or December 23), most shops start to stock for and promote the December holidays immediately after Halloween, and sometimes even before.
American football is often a major part of Thanksgiving celebrations in the U.S. and likewise Canadian football in Canada. Professional games are traditionally played on Thanksgiving Day in both countries; until recently in the U.S., these were the only games played during the week apart from Sunday or Monday night. In Canada, these are the only games played on a Monday except for the Labour Day classic, and on the Civic Holiday. The Detroit Lions of the American National Football League have hosted a game every Thanksgiving Day since 1934, with the exception of 1939–1944 (due to World War II). The Dallas Cowboys have hosted every Thanksgiving Day since 1966, with the exception of 1975 and 1977 when the then-St. Louis Cardinals hosted. Additionally, many college and high school football games are played over Thanksgiving weekend, often between regional or historic rivals.
U.S. tradition associates the holiday with a meal held in 1621 by the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Some of the details of the American Thanksgiving story are myths that developed in the 1890s and early 1900s as part of the effort to forge a common national identity in the aftermath of the Civil War and in the melting pot of new immigrants.
In Canada, Thanksgiving is a three-day weekend (although some provinces choose to observe a four day weekend, Friday–Monday). While the actual Thanksgiving holiday is on a Monday, Canadians might eat their Thanksgiving meal on any day of that three day weekend. This often means celebrating a meal with one group of relatives on one day, and another meal with a different group of relatives on another day. |
