Thanksgiving ( Canada ) - wikipedia Thanksgiving ( Canada ) Thanksgiving Shopping for pumpkins for Thanksgiving in Ottawa 's ByWard Market Observed by Canada Type Cultural Significance A celebration of being thankful for what one has and the bounty of the previous year. Celebrations Spending time with Family, feasting, religious practice Date Second Monday in October 2016 date October 10 ( 2016 - 10 - 10 ) 2017 date October 9 ( 2017 - 10 - 09 ) 2018 date October 8 ( 2018 - 10 - 08 ) 2019 date October 14 ( 2019 - 10 - 14 ) Frequency annual Related to Thanksgiving in the United States Thanksgiving ( French : Action de grâce ), or Thanksgiving Day ( Jour de l'action de grâce ) is an annual Canadian holiday, occurring on the second Monday in October, which celebrates the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Thanksgiving has been officially celebrated as an annual holiday in Canada since November 6, 1879. The date, however, was not fixed and varied by year, though it was commonly the third Monday in October. On January 31, 1957, the Governor General of Canada Vincent Massey issued a proclamation stating : `` A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed -- to be observed on the second Monday in October. '' Contents 1 Statutory holiday 2 Traditional celebration 3 History 4 See also 5 References 6 External links Statutory holiday Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in most of Canada, with the exceptions being the Atlantic provinces of Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, where it is an optional holiday. Companies that are regulated by the federal government ( such as those in the telecommunications and banking sectors ) recognize the holiday regardless of its provincial status. Traditional celebration As a liturgical festival, Thanksgiving corresponds to the English and continental European harvest festival, with churches decorated with cornucopias, pumpkins, corn, wheat sheaves, and other harvest bounty. English and European harvest hymns are sung on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. While the actual Thanksgiving holiday is on a Monday, Canadians may gather for their Thanksgiving feast on any day during the long weekend. Foods traditionally served at Thanksgiving include roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet corn, various autumn vegetables ( mainly various kinds of squashes but also Brussels sprouts ), and pumpkin pie. Baked ham and apple pie are also fairly common, and various regional dishes and desserts may also be served, including salmon, wild game, butter tarts, and Nanaimo bars. In Canadian football, the Canadian Football League holds a nationally televised doubleheader, the Thanksgiving Day Classic. It is one of two weeks in which the league plays on Monday afternoons, the other being the Labour Day Classic. Unlike the Labour Day games, the teams that play on the Thanksgiving Day Classic vary each year ; the Montreal Alouettes have traditionally held permanent hosting of the Thanksgiving games in recent years. Kitchener - Waterloo Oktoberfest holds a Thanksgiving parade on the holiday ; it is broadcast on CTV on tape - delay. The parade consists of floats, civic figures in the region, local performance troupes and marching bands. Canadian Thanksgiving coincides with the observance in the United States of Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples ' Day and has done so since the US implemented the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1971 ( most countries in the Western Hemisphere fix Columbus Day to October 12 ). As such, American towns with high levels of Canadian tourism will often hold their fall festivals over Thanksgiving / Columbus Day weekend, in part to draw and accommodate Canadian tourists ; Ellicottville, New York 's Fall Festival has been identified as an `` annual pilgrimage '' for Canadians. Border towns also often experience an uptick in shoppers at grocery stores, as Canadian shoppers take advantage of lower sales taxes and commodity prices in the United States over the long holiday. The U.S. also has its own Thanksgiving, but on the fourth Thursday in November. History Canadian troops attend a Thanksgiving service in the bombed - out Cambrai Cathedral, in France in October 1918 According to some historians, the first celebration of Thanksgiving in North America occurred during the 1578 voyage of Martin Frobisher from England, in search of the Northwest Passage. His third voyage, to the Frobisher Bay area of Baffin Island in the present Canadian Territory of Nunavut, set out with the intention of starting a small settlement. His fleet of fifteen ships was outfitted with men, materials, and provisions. However, the loss of one of his ships through contact with ice, along with many of the building materials, was to prevent him from doing so. The expedition was plagued by ice and freak storms, which at times scattered the fleet ; on meeting again at their anchorage in Frobisher Bay, ``... Mayster Wolfall, a learned man, appointed by Her Majesty 's Counsel to be their minister and preacher, made unto them a godly sermon, exhorting them especially to be thankful to God for their strange and miraculous deliverance in those so dangerous places... ''. They celebrated Communion and `` The celebration of divine mystery was the first sign, scale, and confirmation of Christ 's name, death and passion ever known in all these quarters. '' ( The notion of Frobisher 's service being first on the continent has come into dispute, as Spaniards conducted similar services in Spanish North America during the mid-16th century, decades before Frobisher 's arrival. ) Years later, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, from 1604, also held feasts of thanks. They even formed the Order of Good Cheer and held feasts with their First Nations neighbours, at which food was shared. After the Seven Years ' War ended in 1763, with New France handed over to the British, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving days were observed beginning in 1799 but did not occur every year. During and after the American Revolution, American refugees who remained loyal to Great Britain moved from the newly independent United States to Canada. They brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada, such as the turkey, pumpkin, and squash. Lower Canada and Upper Canada observed Thanksgiving on different dates ; for example, in 1816 both celebrated Thanksgiving for the termination of the war of 1812 between France, the U.S. and Great Britain, with Lower Canada marking the day on May 21 and Upper Canada on June 18. In 1838, Lower Canada used Thanksgiving to celebrate the end of the Lower Canada Rebellion. Following the rebellions, the two Canadas were merged into a united Province of Canada, which observed Thanksgiving six times from 1850 to 1865. During this period, Thanksgiving was a solemn, mid-week celebration. The first Thanksgiving Day after Canadian Confederation was observed as a civic holiday on April 5, 1872, to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales ( later King Edward VII ) from a serious illness. For many years before it was declared a national holiday in 1879, Thanksgiving was celebrated in either late October or early November. From 1879 onward, Thanksgiving Day has been observed every year, the date initially being a Thursday in November. After World War I, an amendment to the Armistice Day Act established that Armistice Day and Thanksgiving would, starting in 1921, both be celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11 occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays, and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day. From 1931 to 1957, the date was set by proclamation, generally falling on the second Monday in October, except for 1935, when it was moved due to a general election. In 1957, Parliament fixed Thanksgiving as the second Monday in October. The theme of the Thanksgiving holiday also changed each year to reflect an important event to be thankful for. In its early years it was for an abundant harvest and occasionally for a special anniversary. See also Canada portal Thanksgiving Public holidays in Canada References Jump up ^ `` The odd, complicated history of Canadian Thanksgiving - Macleans.ca ''. October 5, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2017. ^ Jump up to : Thanksgiving Day, Canadian Encyclopedia Jump up ^ Kelch, Kalie ( August 27, 2013 ). Grab Your Boarding Pass. Review & Herald Publishing Association. p. 12. ISBN 9780812756548. Retrieved November 28, 2014. Jump up ^ `` Statutory Holidays in Canada ''. Retrieved October 6, 2012. Jump up ^ `` Paid public holidays ''. WorkRights.ca. Jump up ^ `` Thanksgiving - is it a Statutory Holiday ? ''. Government of Nova Scotia. Retrieved October 13, 2008. Jump up ^ `` Statutes, Chapter E-6.2 '' ( PDF ). Government of Prince Edward Island. Retrieved October 13, 2008. Jump up ^ `` RSNL1990 Chapter L - 2 - Labour Standards Act ''. Assembly of Newfoundland. Retrieved October 13, 2008. Jump up ^ `` Statutory Holidays '' ( PDF ). Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, Canada. Jump up ^ `` Parade - Kitchener - Waterloo Oktoberfest : Welcome to Kitchener - Waterloo Oktoberfest Thanksgiving Day Parade ''. Retrieved September 23, 2016. Jump up ^ Smiles at Ellicottville Fall Festival : See who made the annual pilgrimage to Ellicottville. The Buffalo News ( October 10, 2016 ). Retrieved October 10, 2016. Jump up ^ Raguse, Lou ( October 14, 2013 ). Canadian Thanksgiving brings shoppers Archived December 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine... WIVB - TV. Retrieved October 14, 2013. Jump up ^ Collinson, Richard ( April 22, 2010 ). The three voyages of Martin Frobisher : in search of a passage to Cathai and India by the northwest AD 1576 - 1578. ISBN 9781108010757. Jump up ^ Wilson, Craig ( November 21, 2007 ). `` Florida teacher chips away at Plymouth Rock Thanksgiving myth ''. Usatoday.com. Retrieved September 5, 2011. Jump up ^ Davis, Kenneth C. ( November 25, 2008 ). `` A French Connection ''. Nytimes.com. Retrieved September 5, 2011. ^ Jump up to : `` Proclamation and Observance of General Thanksgiving Days and reasons therefore ''. Department of Canadian Heritage, Government of Canada. Archived from the original on June 28, 2013. Retrieved October 18, 2010. CS1 maint : BOT : original - url status unknown ( link ) Jump up ^ Solski, Ruth. Canada 's Traditions and Celebrations. On the Mark Press. p. 12. ISBN 1 - 55035 - 694 - 1. Jump up ^ Stevens, Peter ( October 9, 2017 ). `` The religious and nationalist origins of Canadian Thanksgiving ''. Toronto Star. Retrieved October 9, 2017. ^ Jump up to : `` Canadian Heritage - Thanksgiving and Remembrance Day ''. Retrieved October 18, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Canadian Thanksgiving Day History ''. Kidzworld.com. Retrieved November 17, 2012. External links Find more aboutThanksgiving ( Canada ) at Wikipedia 's sister projects Definitions from Wiktionary Media from Wikimedia Commons Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe / module on Holiday Recipes `` Thanksgiving '' Encyclopædia Britannica Thanksgiving History and traditions Canada Samuel de Champlain Martin Frobisher Halifax First Nations United States Pilgrims Mayflower Plymouth Colony Plymouth, Massachusetts Plymouth Rock Native Americans Samoset Squanto Wampanoag Cornucopia National Thanksgiving Proclamation Franksgiving National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation William Penn Sarah Josepha Hale Blackout Wednesday Abraham Lincoln Mourt 's Relation Cuisine Thanksgiving dinner Turkey Deep - fried Tofurkey Stuffing Gravy Butternut squash Apple cider Hazelnuts Cranberry sauce Carrots Mashed potatoes Sweet potatoes Acorn squash Yams Corn Green bean casserole Apple pie Pumpkin pie Pecan pie Sweet potato pie Tamale Songs `` Alice 's Restaurant '' `` Bless This House '' `` Bringing In the Sheaves '' `` Come, Ye Thankful People, Come '' `` For the Beauty of the Earth '' `` Jingle Bells '' `` Let All Things Now Living '' `` Now Thank We All Our God '' `` Over the River and Through the Wood '' `` Simple Gifts '' `` The Thanksgiving Song '' `` We Gather Together '' `` We Plough the Fields and Scatter '' Associated events Cultural Christmas and holiday season Harvest festivals Thanksgiving in film Thanksgiving television specials Winter festivals Lighting of the Macy 's Great Tree World 's Largest Disco Black Friday Parades Novant Health ( Charlotte ) McDonald 's ( Chicago ) America 's ( Detroit ) Oktoberfest ( Kitchener - Waterloo ) Hollywood Christmas ( Los Angeles ) Macy 's ( New York City ) 6abc - Dunkin ' Donuts ( Philadelphia ) Celebrate the Season ( Pittsburgh ) America 's Hometown ( Plymouth ) Protests National Day of Mourning Unthanksgiving Day Buy Nothing Day Sports Football NFL on Thanksgiving Day CFL Thanksgiving Classic English -- Latin rivalry Missouri Turkey Day Game Turkey Day Classic Basketball AdvoCare Invitational Battle 4 Atlantis Wooden Legacy Maui Invitational Tournament Turkey Trots Atlanta Marathon Berwick Run for the Diamonds Buffalo Turkey Trot Dallas Turkey Trot Feaster Five Road Race Manchester Road Race Others National Dog Show Pumpkin chucking Turkey bowling Turkey Night Grand Prix Holidays in Canada Nationwide statutory holidays New Year 's Day Good Friday Canada Day Labour Day Christmas Day Statutory holidays for federal employees Easter Monday Victoria Day Thanksgiving Remembrance Day Boxing Day Indigenous holidays Hobiyee National Aboriginal Day Other common holidays August Civic Holiday Family Day / Heritage Day / Islander Day / Louis Riel Day Memorial Day ( Newfoundland and Labrador ) Quebec National Holiday Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thanksgiving_(Canada)&oldid=815296942 '' Categories : Public holidays in Canada Thanksgiving Movable October observances Monday observances Fall events in Canada Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links CS1 maint : BOT : original - url status unknown Use mdy dates from November 2017 Holidays and observances by scheduling ( nth weekday of the month ) Infobox holiday ( other ) Articles containing French - language text Talk Contents About Wikipedia Français Русский Edit links This page was last edited on 14 December 2017, at 00 : 38. 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Question: who declared thanksgiving a national holiday in canada
Answer: Vincent Massey