The Canadian Thanksgiving can be observed the second Monday of October, however many people opt to spend 3 days in a row and have a long weekend.
The first notion of Thanksgiving in Canada dates back to 1578, when the English seaman and explorer Martin Frobisher made three voyages to the New World to look for Northwest Passage through Canada. He held his Thankgiving celebration for the survival of his brave crew through ‘the perils of storms and icebergs’ .
Samuel de Champlain in the early 17th century celebrated a plenteous harvest as well. The French colonists had long continued feasts, when they even devoted some yield to the indigenous peoples of the area.
New settlers from Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and other countries contributed to the tradition of Thanksgiving arriving and bringing parts of their cultures here.
In the fall of 2014, Trent International Student Association (TISA) held a Thanksgiving dinner for both Canadian and International students at Trent. When I came in the room at Sadleir House, organizers from TISA (president Jessica Rogers, vice president Maqsoodah Beegun (who kindly gave me an interview), secretary Christiana Newling, director of finance Adriana Sierra, first year rep Sancha Reynolds, and director of publicity Olga Kuznietsova.
The girls ran everywhere back and forth trying to organize the crowd. Some students who looked shy fluently started to chat about their different student things. Everyone looked excited and two things grabbed my attention.
The first thing was that there were so many students from Canada. Before, I heard so many stories about how Thanksgiving is great, but… I had no invitation to take part in it. It was once like some secret ritual to me. As if it was something not meant for me as an international student, but more just for Canadian students with families. What I saw there showed me that this was not true. Not true at all, seriously. The second thing was that the tables were covered by large pieces of paper and there were drawing crayons. I could not resist and drew a ship on one piece of paper – remember Martin Frobisher? I thought that many people around me were already students at the university, which means that they already started a life-long independent voyage though cold storms and icebergs of life with ups and downs. Few really succeed, few really fail. However, all need some warmth, friendly talk, or a piece of advice and that was the time and place to get that!
Maqsoodah (TISA vice-president) said to me that international students should experience real Canadian Thanksgiving and so far she knows TISA has been holding such dinners every year. She said that it can be a great tradition for students to see Thanksgiving as a tradition for everyone. Well, I agree that Thanksgiving has been a great experience here in Canada!
After reading the main part of the article you may have questions such as: what is the point of this article for me right now? I think I have good answer for you. January 24, 2015 at the Great Hall in Champlain, TISA has another dinner. International clubs under TISA will make original foods from their different parts of the world.
I do not know whether it shall be a disaster or super success. What does it matter, you will have positive emotions and fun if you join those incredible people there! Tickets (adults) are $15, (children 12 and under) are $10. Big talkers and eaters both are welcomed because there will be a lot of people and tasty, appetizing, palatable, nutty, yummy food.