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Oct 13, 2013 · It has become common knowledge that the first Thanksgiving in North America was held by Sir Martin Frobisher and his crew in Nunavut in 1578. There are those — mainly Americans upset by the thought of having their holiday co-opted — who argue that it wasn't a “real” Thanksgiving.
- Overview
- Origins of Canadian Thanksgiving
- How Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated
Canada celebrated Thanksgiving decades before the Pilgrims, but the holiday in the U.S. and its northern neighbor have much in common.
Imagine the Thanksgiving holiday a month and a half early—and though there’s plenty of pumpkin pie, there’s not a Pilgrim in sight. For 37 million Canadians, that’s the reality of the second Monday in each October.
Canadian Thanksgiving kicked off with a feast of biscuits, salt beef, and mushy peas in 1578. That’s when Sir Martin Frobisher sailed from England in search of the Northwest Passage. After his crew’s arrival in Nunavut (now Canada’s most northerly territory) Frobisher’s men gathered, ate, and took part in a Church of England service with Mayster Wolfall, an Anglican minister, who preached “a godly sermon, exhorting them especially to be thankful to God for their strange and miraculous deliverance in those so dangerous places.”
Both Native Americans and indigenous Canadians had long celebrated the fall harvest, and white settlers attempted to follow suit as they settled on the Canadian mainland. Early attempts at French settlement along Canada’s Atlantic coast had been disastrous, and culminated in 1604 with a scurvy epidemic that took place after French settlers ignored warnings that winter ice would trap them on Île-Ste.-Croix, an island in the Bay of Fundy. They pressed forward and ended up isolated on the island for months; half of the group of settlers died of scurvy before being rescued by Indigenous Canadians.
As in the United States, Canada observed occasional Thanksgivings to celebrate important events such as the end of the War of 1812. And like its neighbor, Canada’s first thanksgivings tended to be prayerful affairs. The two countries also celebrated similarly; thanks to pro-British Loyalists who moved to Canada during and after the Revolutionary War, New England staples like turkey and pumpkin were introduced to Canada, too. (Here are a few turkey facts for Thanksgiving table talk.)
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The history of Thanksgiving in the U.S.
Learn about the first encounter between the Pilgrims and Native Americans in 1621, their surprising relationship, and the reason a United States president created a holiday in honor of it.
Thanksgiving became a national affair in Canada starting in 1859, again beating the United States to the pumpkin pie. (Abraham Lincoln set the precedent for the annual holiday in the U.S. after the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, when he gave in to decades of lobbying by women’s magazine mogul Sarah Josepha Hale and set the holiday for the last Thursday of November).
Unlike American Thanksgiving, Canada’s national Thanksgiving date took decades to become standardized and annual. In 1957, Canada’s parliament set the date as the second Monday in October. By then, the United States was celebrating its Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.
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Oct 4, 2018 · As the story goes, in 1578, English explorer Martin Frobisher and his crew gave thanks and communion was observed, either on land at Frobisher Bay, in present day Nunavut, or onboard a ship anchored there.
Sir Martin Frobisher ( / ˈfroʊbɪʃər /; c. 1535/1539 – 22 November 1594 [1]) was an English sailor and privateer who made three voyages to the New World looking for the North-west Passage.
Nov 23, 2023 · In 1578, a group of Englishmen led by Martin Frobisher explored Canada. Separated by a “greate storm” at sea, the party’s ships found each other and reassembled on the coast of Labrador. A preacher exhorted them “to be thankefull to God for theyr strange and miraculous deliverance.”
Nov 22, 2022 · 3. The first Thanksgiving in North America may have been older still. Meanwhile, arguments have been made to assert the primacy of Martin Frobisher’s 1578 voyage in search of the Northwest Passage on the timeline of North American Thanksgiving celebrations.
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