The Traditions of the Canadian Thanksgiving Celebration

The overt celebration of gratitude of the Earth's generosity is through a big feast, just like all the harvest festivals throughout history. And in Canada family gathering for twenty-four hours of enjoyment and fellowship is easier than in many other countries of the world. While the official Thanksgiving Day is on Monday, Canadians typically use the full three-day weekend for the celebration.

At the end of the main meal, it is customary to kick back and relax while watching the featured "Thanksgiving Day Classic" football competition. To differentiate the American version of football, the Canadian Football League offers a doubleheader schedule of matches for the Thanksgiving Day celebration. Since it is only one of the two days in the year the teams play on a Monday, the participating teams use a rotating agenda to determine which team will play in each Thanksgiving Day match.

Besides the activities inside the house or the family meal, the weekend of Thanksgiving is usually the occasion to have a last big outdoor event.

Either watch the many Thanksgiving Day parades or enjoying to participate to a parade into the end of the summer air is another Thanksgiving tradition.

During the Thanksgiving weekend Canadians have their last outside getaway before the arrival of the long and cold winter. Before the cold comes, it is an ideal time for hiking, fishing or just looking at the outstanding fall colors that are cover the trees.

Thanksgiving Day is basically a lay feast however people with a religious mind have their own Thanksgiving traditions that are celebrated in their churches. Harkening back to the old European harvest festivals, most churches tend to decorate with the traditional cornucopias, wheat sheaves, pumpkins, gourds and corn ears. There are particular scriptural texts and hymns that are emphasized on this particular day to celebrate the harvest and their gratitude to their God for providing for them.

Thanksgiving is the opportunity for us to remember that during the previous centuries as well as today in many countries, there are people that are not as blessed as we are.