Perhaps, I have mentioned this a time or two but, for those who are new here, I’m a “border kid”, born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The only thing separating us from Niagara Falls, New York was a river and a few bridges. There was a time when going from one Niagara to the other wasn’t given a second thought. It was equal to walking around the corner to a friend’s house. Things change and now you had better be ready to invest a a fairly hefty piece of time just waiting in line to cross that bridge never mind contemplating what might happen when it is “your turn” to face the border agents. As I said, that is now.
Then, things were different. We came and went freely. Parents were never concerned if their children walked across to another country just to hang out downtown. Can you imagine? I said “ANOTHER COUNTRY”! It never felt like that. We all had friends on both sides. We all had relatives on both sides. We studied the same things in school. OK, we were led to believe we studied the same things in school. The reality was quite different. Once a Canadian child was of certain age you started to ask questions. Most families took turns hosting Holiday dinners. If we spent Christmas at Aunt Maude’s in Buffalo then we would spend Easter at our home in Niagara Falls. The Fourth of July was always spent in the US. Dominion Day (now Canada Day) was always spent in Canada. One Holiday was always a great source of confusion, Thanksgiving Day.
Pretty standard Thanksgiving artwork done by kids on both sides of the border…except I just made this one this afternoon…not when I was five.
We celebrate Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October. Our American friends celebrate on the fourth Thursday of November. Granted it made the who ate where part easy to figure out but we had questions. We all learned about Thanksgiving in school. You know, the Pilgrims, Plymouth Rock, Natives, corn, turkey dinner…wait a minute.
Random shot of corn just because I like it. There was no corn.
Right about now is when you start to realize things may not be the same in the classroom on both sides of the border. As a Canadian child I was taught a great deal of American history. In fact, I would venture to say that the influence of American History was quite heavy in my classroom. With family on both sides of the border it is easy to compare notes and find that Americans know very little about Canadian History. Canadian TV Producers have actually made extremely amusing programming asking Americans to answer questions about Canada. Funny? Yes, but, also a little sad, don’t you think?
The History section on The Weather Network explains it the simplest:
The reality is that Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving 43 years before the Pilgrims reached Plymouth. There wasn’t even turkey served. The first Thanksgiving meal was salt beef, crackers and mushy peas. It was all they had. I will give thanks that the Americans changed the menu, although I can think of some turkeys who wouldn’t.
Cousin Susie with “Betty”, who will never be Thanksgiving dinner.
Last year folks on both sides of the border celebrated and continue to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the “War of 1812“. Yes, we have spent a couple of years celebrating us becoming not American. I am not sure why the Americans were celebrating. Oh, that’s right, they still think they won that one (according to my much beloved American brother-in-law). Here Laura Secord is considered a hero. In the US…not so much. There are a lot of discrepancies when it comes to Canadian/American history most recently would be Ben Affleck’s depiction of what happened during the Iran Hostage Crisis. I prefer President Reagan’s account.
We will probably always have these inconsistencies in our history together. We will probably always disagree on how to spell color/colour. We will bang our heads together trying to figure out how many kilometers per hour is equal to how many miles per hour so we don’t get a speeding ticket in either country.
I am celebrating my Canadian Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October but on the fourth Thursday in November I will also give thanks for all my American friends and family.
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Sounds like you’ve got it right – multiple occasions to give thanks for friends and family.
No one ever speaks of Arbor Day like that…
Happy Thanksgiving, SPP, to you and all of yours, regardless of where!
Thank you, El Guapo.
I’m curious do you plant a tree on Arbor Day?
I used to send money to plant a tree in Israel on the Jewish equivalent of that holiday.
At some point, I got distracted and stopped. Now that you’ve reminded me….
That is my favourite bat/bar mitzvah gift. My nephew when he got older went to Israel to see his tree.
What a great view of both sides, Michele. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you, Elyse, although I do tend to be biased on the Canadian side. I can’t help myself.
This is enlightening. I don’t think I’ve ever heard or read the name Martin Frobisher.
Where does Canadian Thanksgiving stand on the controversial question of cranberry sauce: in the can or no?
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Thank you, Hippie C. Did you google Martin Frobisher? As far as the cranberry sauce question goes we can’t even answer that in our household. He-Who is an in the can kind of guy. I am not.
I’m sure you two crazy kids can work around your cranberry differences.
Just googled him — he bears a striking resemblance to Adam Levine.
Yes, we can. Which means we “can” it. 😉
I’ve never noticed the resemblance before but I just looked again and you are right. Adam Levine.
Nothing’s better than multiple turkey dinners!
Happy Thanksgiving Day. (I still say grey not gray)
Betty is beautiful -( the only live turkey’s around are the wild ones)
Life there sounds like life on the southern border of Texas. Teachers, students, shoppers, friends all used to wander back and forth.
Columbus Day is pretty much ignored here…I mean he’s not looked at so happily by Native Americans and Hispanic/Latinos.
Enjoyed the post!
Thanks, Philosopher. Betty is beautiful. They live on a farm that is their own little menagerie. My personal favourite was Sammy the pig but she passed last year.
I never thought about it before but Columbus Day wouldn’t be big with the Native Americans, etc. It does make you wonder about these country wide Holidays. Recently I have been doing some work pertaining to the Yukon and Northwest Territories and Inuvik. I found myself wondering how the people native to those areas celebrated Thanksgiving. Corn and turkeys and pumkins would not be the norm so far north. Oddly, I found the same “hand” drawn turkeys from the kids.
Happy Thanksgiving, my Canadian friend! Why not just celebrate both? Good idea! I think we should make it a tradition to celebrate both here in the US. I love your turkey picture! It’s interesting how the Canadian tradition adopted the turkey. Do you have dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, etc? Yes, I do think it’s sad that we don’t know more Canadian history and that we haven’t converted to metric. That will never happen!! We’re pathetic. I love this post, Michelle. I hope you a wonderful day of togetherness with family and friends. Enjoy!
Thanks, Amy. Did you notice that I strategically placed pieces of our maple leaf in my turkey picture? I had fun making it so I am glad you like it.
We are just as gluttonous as our US neighbours when it comes to turkey dinner. There is dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, cranberries, corn, cabbage…it seems endless when you write it out. And of course pumpkin pie. Depending what province you are in and the family heritage you can also end up with perogies, sausage and more! I gained weight just telling you about it.
Lurve your Canadian Thanksgiving turkey Michehelle, and of course the lovely discrepancies between the two countries. Sad to think those easy border crossing days are history. I remember the days when R and used to have to make a real song and dance to get border stamps in our passports! Passports, they’d say and refuse to play along with him but because I was ‘foreign’ they’d accept my proffered passport while insisting on R’s drivers licence. Hope you and He Who had a great day. I was unpacking … still (should be) unpacking! 🙂
Thank you, Meredith. I I had fun doing my turkey. Imagine at my age?
The unpacking never ends. I’m still doing it and we moved here in March.
Oh no, don’t tell me that, I’ll go mad if I can’t visualise order in place of this chaos! On top of which I’ve broken all my finger nails and my back and legs/feet are killing me and my arms and hands are shaking from cutting up boxes … and it’s only day two … I’d much rather be drawing turkeys! 🙂
I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to stress you out. I’m a bad unpacker. There is no way you can take as long as me.
Ha ha ha! After the 12 hours sleep two days labour has given me I’m feeling a little better, but I can see I’m going to have to organise a sale before the process if over – there’s no way everything I’ve brought back will fit into my more constrained life! So you see – your experience has been valuable for me because it reminded me why it is I’m still drowning in ‘stuff’ 🙂
Awesome, as usual, Michelle! Lovely and accurate, and a little in-your-face-Americans … but just a little 😉 …. yup, they think they won the war and saved the hostages…they also think they were the heroes of WWII . But they are still the proudest and loudest and most loyal citizens of a country, and I LOVE THEIR FOOTBALL FANS! Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well, Lauren.
Yes, just a little because that’s the way we roll.
I will keep an eye out for my turkey soup in that waterproof envelope.
Have a good one Michelle – didn’t know the history of thanksgiving in Canada before reading the post!
Few do, Jim, few do. Thanks for reading.
You have a big heart and a boundless talent, Michelle.
Great post and pics! Betty rules!
Yes, yes she does. I think we should have Susie bring her to your hotel. That would be a good chapter for the new book.
I think I’d prefer the salt beef dinner. At least I’d understand how it got so dry
Sounds like you need to find someone to cook you a proper turkey.
Those borders between two countries always makes for interesting comparisons. A line drawn almost at random and not possible to see at all (with the exception of a couple of borders around the world) mark the demarcation line between what over times become two different cultures, thought patterns, belief and even languages. It’s interesting to learn how you Canadians see the differences between you and your neighbour in the south – which is usually the side we get to hear about.
So true, Otto. The one country we all know and hear about is the US, no matter where we live. Learning about other countries and cultures has to be something we seek out on our own as it isn’t always in our face like the American information is. Thanks for reading and commenting, Otto.
Love the beloved brother-in-law reference….lmao!! Nice blog seester! Always a joy to read…you tell a great story. Love you xxoo
Do you like my hand turkey? I tried to find one I had from Ashlee when she was wee but I think I gave all that stuff to her in the last move. So I decided to do my own. 😉
A very happy Thanksgiving to you, Michele!!!
I have to admit I’m ridiculously ignorant when it comes to the history of Canadian Thanksgiving (and Canadian history in genera). Seems even worse considering I grew-up relatively close to the border, too. On the plus side, though, my spelling is awful in either country. Er… wait a minute…
P.S. I love the hand turkey!
🙂
See what I mean?!?! Look what I did… I totally left an ‘L’ out of your name, for Pete…
*face-palm*
😦
Heheheh…people do that all the time. Here is a little known fact…when I was sixteen and legally adopted my birth certificate came with my name spelled wrong so on all legal documents after that we had to put “Michelle” AKA “Michele”. Weird, right?
It’s kind of cool, in a way… and it makes for a fascinating story! I have only one spelling to worry about (and, believe it or not, sometimes I even have trouble with that)!
🙂
I know…the… AKA makes me sound like a mysterious spy. It cracks me up.
Thank you, Robert. I really liked my hand turkey too and I had fun doing it.
That’s a very informative post you’ve got here Michelle! I have friends where the father is Canadian, the mother American and the kids were born in Brazil, so as you can guess, there is much celebration for all the Independence Day of three countries! Beautiful shots btw. 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving! (I know, I’m a bit late on that)
Thank you Java Girl. It won’t be long now and you will be sitting down to turkey dinner with your Mom and Adventure Boy.
Lol, yes. I always have to tell myself “moderation” when it comes to Thanksgiving dinners. It’s so easy to stuff yourself with all the amazing foods. I was good last year, so there is a good chance I will be good again this year. LOL
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving (Part 1), Michelle. We’ve been here fifteen years, and friends and family back in the US still ask us if Canada has such a holiday.
Charles, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well. The traditions must be a little different on the East Coast but I bet everyone at least knows the origins.
It is bizarre how our US friends and family can still be so oblivious to us. My brother-in-law has been married to my sister close to thirty years and he is still surprised every year to hear it is Thanksgiving Day here.
Love hearing about the different versions of history from the 2 countries. Thanks for sharing with us
Thank you ColoradoTravelingDucks. I enjoyed your Pink Store post and am looking forward to reading more.
We absolutely do not teach our children the history and culture of other countries. I would think learning about our neighbors to the north would be essential, yet even I am somewhat ignorant. Thanks for the lesson. I love celebrating both traditions.
I think the US really considers Canada just an extension of itself and that’s why there are some grey areas with regards to culture and history. I think we have it best because we are more aware of both we get to celebrate both. 😉
So true…I don’t know anything other than what you’ve just taught me! Thanks Michelle!
With your turkey day coming up I hope to see lots of Thanksgiving photos from you. Have a wonderful time.
You too!
I knew Canadian Thanksgiving was in October. What I’m dying to know is if the holiday is designed to highlight all the family dysfunctions. Or is that a strictly American slant?
It blows my mind to think about leaving home and walking to another country. That is so cool!
Oh, don’t get me started on the dysfunction! I think that is pretty universal in North America.
Now when I sit at the border waiting for lengthy periods of time to get across I realize how much we took for granted those easy border crossings. It is a different time.
Can you have a pet turkey on Thanks Giving? 😀 I think it’s coming up. Any plans for a different dinner? Have a lovely time! 🙂
Betty is not a pet. She is family. The American Thanksgiving is tomorrow, followed by Black Friday. The My Thanksgiving was last month as I am Canadian.
Are you having another gathering tomorrow? If so, enjoy! 🙂
No, I am going to sit this one out. Thanks.